Former Good Morning Britain anchor Piers Morgan caused outrage on social media when he slammed Wimbledon – branding top tennis players “people not skilled enough to play cricket”. The ex-ITV star caused major controversy on X, with fans slamming him for “demeaning” the sport which has birthed athletes like Emma Raducanu and Novak Djokovic. 

In a blistering tweet, Piers wrote: “Anyone who goes to Wimbledon during a Lord’s Test match should give their head a wobble. One is the greatest event of the English sporting summer season, the other is people not skilled enough to play cricket, hitting a few balls over a net.”

He later posted a video of himself at the Test Match, showing a performance by the Irish Guards brass band as they marched across the pitch. Piers added: “You don’t get this at Wimbledon… the Irish Guards bashing out some absolute bangers.”

Fans soon took to the comments section to criticise Piers for his “petty” remarks, with one swiping: “Sad you weren’t invited to the Royal Box?” As another said: “You cannot praise a thing without demeaning the other?”

Somebody else echoed: “Mate… you’ve got this one all wrong.” And a fourth penned: “Tennis is probably one of the hardest sports to get good at, certainly beats [standing] around on a field all day!”

It’s no surprise he’s not keen on the tennis after being “banned for life” from the Wimbledon tennis club. He told the Good Trouble podcast: “I trained on the Wimbledon newspaper, so I covered the Wimbledon tennis.

“One of the first scoops I ever had was that I infiltrated security at Wimbledon tennis. I got into the Royal Box. I got into the players’ dressing room, I was 19 and I got banned for life from the Wimbledon tennis club.

“The chairman Buzzer Haddington wrote to the newspaper’s editor and said I would never be allowed to cross the hallowed turf again. But I was given a lifetime ban for exposing genuine security issues. I managed to literally be having a gin and tonic in the Royal Box on a match day during the tournament.

“I got into the players’ dressing room and was talking to players. It was nuts. It wouldn’t happen now but at the time it was exhilarating.”

However, it did seem like Piers was enjoying one aspect of this year’s tennis – how “fabulously British” an announcement from the umpire was during a men’s doubles quarter-final match. The umpire told the crowd: “Ladies and gentlemen, when you open your champagne bottles, please do not pop the cork onto the court.”