The world of Cricket is abuzz and somewhat divided over Jonny Bairstow’s stumping by Alex Carey on the last day of the second Ashes Test. The division isn’t on whether the dismissal was legit or not, which it obviously was, but more on the ethical part of it.
Alex Carey had stumped Bairstow after the last ball of a Cameron Green over. While Bairstow stepped out of the crease thinking the ball was dead, Carey took an under arm shy at the stumps. And a confused Bairstow was left staring at the dislodged stumps as the Aussies celebrated and the third umpire confirmed the dismissal.
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On the field this led to a brief exchange and Stuart Broad, the next man in, told Carey it was ”all you’ll be remembered for.” And at lunch, Usman Khwaja and David Warner were confronted by MCC members.
While England would want to flag the ethical aspect, or the ‘spirit of cricket’ in the debate, old videos are surfacing showing Bairstow and England’s coach Brendon McCullum doing exactly the same as Carey.
In a 2014 County game, a young Bairstow, while playing for Yorkshire dismissed Samit Patel in the same manner. The only difference here was that it wasn’t a regulation stumping, the one at the end of an over when the ends change. Commentators had called it a “very very smart from Jonny Bairstow’, while terming Patel as “lousy”. Bairstow had called in “rules of the game” to defend his action.
“It’s very very smart from Jonny Bairstow”
“Brilliant work by Jonny Bairstow, a wicket out of absolutely nothing there”
“a lot of credit to Jonny Bairstow for realizing the moment”#TheAshes pic.twitter.com/OXnt6mCJfG
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) July 4, 2023
England coach Brendon McCullum sent the ‘spirit of the game’ for toss not once but thrice.
In 2005, in a match against Zimbabwe, he dismissed Chris Mpofu as he left the crease a little early to join Blessing Mahwire’s half-century celebration. A year later, in a match against Sri Lanka, he dismissed Muttiah Muralitharan after he left his crease too soon to join Kumara Sangakkara’s century celebrations. The century had come when Lanka were nine down and it bowled the team out.
Funny Run out ????????????
Zimbabwe Batsmen Blessing Mahwire Complete his 50 but Chris Mpofu in a hurry to congratulate him after complete a run & Leave the Crease without inform umpire or players . @Bazmccullum run him out@taibu44 Captain of Zim Enjoy what happening in the middle pic.twitter.com/IHfv7vaqSc— Zohaib (Cricket King)???????????? (@Zohaib1981) April 23, 2021
The third time was a little different, but not for McCullum. It was at the 2009 Champions Trophy when he dismissed Paul Collingwood, but the then skipper, Daniel Vettori, withdrew the appeal, saying, “According to the laws of the game, it was probably out, but of late we have discussed a lot about the spirit of the game.”
However, McCullum defended his action and said, “I never thought it the wrong thing to do, the rules are there and you can’t reward stupidity.”
The same man now said, “When you become older and more mature, you realise the game and the spirit of it is something you need to protect.”
To be fair to both Bairstow and McCullum they aren’t the only ones to have turned a blind eye to the ‘spirit of the game’ in the heat of the match.
In the 2016 U19 World Cup final, India’s opener Rishabh Pant had to go through a similar dismissal and it resulted in India getting off on the wrong foot in the big game. West Indies won the World Cup.
And this is not something that started in recent times only. A similar incident had come to pass back in 1973-74 during an England vs West Indies Test in Port of Spain in the Caribbean. The incident spiralled into a heated situation and had to be controlled very tactfully.
On Day 2 of the test, Bernard Julien tapped the last ball of Derek Underwood’s over to Tony Greig at silly point. After the ball, the players started leaving the ground and the wicketkeeper even uprooted the stumps, but Grieg, still had the ball hit the stumps on the non-striker’s end as the other batter on crease Alvin Kallicharran had also started walking out like other players. Grieg appealed and the umpire Douglas Sang Hue, who hadn’t declared stumps yet only hesitated a little to raise his finger.
This was met by a hostile reaction from the crown and intense discussion between the team managements and the decision was overturned overnight. English team management even had to make a statement saying, “in the interest of cricket as a whole, and the future of this tour in particular … the appeal against the batsman be withdrawn”. Toney Greig also had to apologise.
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