Former England Test cricketers Moeen Ali and Alastair Cook engaged in a heated row live on air during BT Sport's coverage of the fourth Ashes Test.
The ex-spinner and captain’s awkward conversation took place during the rain-affected first day of the match between England and Australia.
Ali began to describe the differences between Cook’s captaincy and that of current skipper Joe Root.
“Rooty has more of an emotional attachment with the players, he spends more time with the players," he said.
Cook seemed to take offence to this and responded: “Are you just criticising my captaincy?”, before Ali replied bluntly: “I am a little bit, yeah.
“They're both very different, I did do better with the bat under Cooky but with the ball I was better with Rooty.”
Cook fired back: “So you might criticise me but I’ve never dropped you, how many times did Rooty drop you?”
Ali didn’t back down and replied: “That’s true but you also batted me from 1 to 9 in my first year of international cricket.”
Explaining the reasons for how he played Ali, Cook added: “I was giving you a chance, I couldn’t work whether he you were a tail-ender or an opening batsman so I just to find the perfect role.”
Ali then mentioned he hadn't previously had a conversation of that nature with Cook, before he continued: “Just to go back to my point, Rooty was a little bit more involved with the players, in my opinion.
“Not that Cooky doesn’t care but I think Rooty is a bit more ‘arm over the shoulder’ kind of guy.”
Not impressed with his former teammate's comments, Cook said: “I’m not sure I will take this anymore, I've just come back from a nice holiday and I’ve walked straight into Moeen Ali off his long run.”
Tensions were certainly running high during that segment, but on the field England made a steady start to the first day’s play in Sydney, as Australia finished in 126/3.
Seamers Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Mark Wood took a wicket apiece with Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja remaining not out overnight.
England are now playing for pride after losing the first three Tests of the five-match series.
