AN AUSSIE sporting commentator has fired an incredible series of accusations at the Australian cricket team after adding his voice to a growing English Ashes conspiracy plot.

Racing legend and Channel 7 commentator Richard Freedman has taken an almighty swipe at Cricket Australia officials around the Australian Test team after declaring they were at the centre of the swirling Jonny Bairstow headbutt scandal which has rocked England’s preparations for the Second Test in Adelaide.

English newspaper journalists first gave voice to the conspiratorial plot on Monday with reports English team officials privately believe their Australian opposites orchestrated a deliberate attempt to put pressure on Bairstow and the rest of the team by exposing the keeper’s headbutt attack on Aussie opener Cameron Bancroft in Perth before England’s first Ashes tour match in Perth four weeks ago.

“Relations between England and Australia will plummet now with the tourists suspecting a stitch up,” wrote the Telegraph’s Nick Hoult.

“Bairstow was given a send off by David Warner when he was out for 42 as the Australia players sledged him over the incident with Bancroft.

“Cricket Australia did not want to become involved last night but England suspect the Australians have allowed their media to fire bullets for them.”

Now the English appear to have Australian’s firing bullets at their own side.

Freedman on Tuesday evening told Triple M’s Dead Set Legends Australian cricket has acted“crappy” and “low rent”.

“The whole organisation, what a scabby, low-rent thing to do,” he said.

“To bring up that whole headbutting thing, which by the victim’s own admission, Cameron Bancroft, was that it was basically a bit of fun and then they had a drink and there was no malice intended.

“OK, it was odd, but, you know, there was no harm done and I don’t mind them bringing it up on the field – a bit of sledging, that was OK — but at the very least the organisation could have come out later and said, ‘Look there was nothing in it, it was a bit of fun on the field, He’s a good bloke. Let’s just play on’.

“But, no, they had to milk every bit of opportunistic benefit out of this situation. I thought it was crappy and low rent.”

He said he approved of Steve Smith and the Aussie team using Bairstow’s headbutt as sledging ammunition, but believes the story should have been shut down on Sunday afternoon — before it first broke on Sunday night — with a simple dismissal from Cricket Australia staff.

“That’s OK out on the field, but off the field it was low rent,” he said.

“They should be ashamed of themselves and they should apologise. It didn’t need to be done. I wouldn’t do it. If I was the captain, I would get up and say, ‘I don’t want that’. They should have hosed it down immediately.”

Triple M commentator Dan Ginnane, also said it was a little too convenient that the comments made against Bairstow and English quick James Anderson were made within hearing range of the stump microphones.

The circus surrounding the Bairstow saga has reportedly had the impact the Australian team supposedly wanted when they were accused of hatching the plot.

England is under increased pressure to take a stance on anti-social behaviour as a result of Bairstow’s headbutt, coming hot on the trail of Ben Stokes’ indefinite standing down over his alleged involvement in an early morning drunken brawl in Bristol captured on video.

England players have been slapped with a midnight curfew for the rest of the tour and the team is now in damage control surrounding reports of a fundamental cultural problem surrounding players and alcohol.

The imposed curfew has been widely criticised by English and Aussie cricket greats.

Aussie Test legend and current selector Greg Chappell said on Tuesday the curfew has the potential to backfire.

“No curfews are pretty useless really,” Chappell told SEN’s The Run Home.

“If someone’s determined to get out and do silly things then they are probably going to do it whether there are curfews or not. If you treat people like adults, most of them will behave like adults. Those that don’t probably don’t last very long.

“At the end of the day people find their own level and we’re talking about guys who are very skilled at what they do. They’re adults and have to be treated as such.”

Aussie coach Darren Lehmann said he doesn’t favour the idea of curfews for professional athletes.

He said he does not have any issues with Bairstow’s behaviour towards Bancroft and said the issue at fault is the ongoing balance between stump microphones and player privacy.

“I thought it was really well handled by Cameron Bancroft the other day. One of the best press conferences that I’ve ever seen or heard,” Lehmann told FIVEaa’s Rowey and Bicks.

“It was handled well. They’ve apologised and moved on. There’s no drama from our point of view and a bit of banter on the field.

You’d like it to stay on the field, but obviously sometimes it gets off.”

When asked about the presence of stump mic technology, he said: “No, I’d like stump cam to get turned down a bit”.

“We’ve had issues the other way as well. It’s always when something goes wrong or something is said wrong, it gets reported, the stump mic picks it up and it gets out. That’s something the players are aware of and our guys are aware of.”