Save articles for later
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
Australia’s cricketers have revealed how Jonny Bairstow furiously reacted during the lunch break at Lord’s in the minutes after he was controversially stumped in this year’s second Ashes Test.
The dismissal, which happened when Bairstow, thinking the ball was dead, wandered from his crease and had his stumps dislodged by wicketkeeper Alex Carey, sent shockwaves through the sport and sparked debate over the spirit of cricket.
The Jonny Bairstow stumping at Lord’s and the Australian players reaction to it.Credit: Getty/Channel 7
Australia copped a tirade abuse from some Marylebone Cricket Club members as they passed through the Lord’s long room on their way to lunch, but defended the stumping, declaring it was within the rules, saying Bairstow should only blame himself for being careless.
In an interview with The Grade Cricketer for Channel 7, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Travis Head, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja opened up on the tense, even comical, immediate aftermath in the Lord’s lunch room when the two teams gathered.
Labuschagne, who could barely contain himself, said Bairstow was “steaming, absolutely steaming”.
“Like, he walked into the lunch room, didn’t have lunch,” Labuschagne said.
“The Sky crew (broadcasters) knew that Jonny was in there, and they just replayed it on the screen. And, as you do, everyone’s watching.
“Obviously, seeing us all watch, he’s like: ‘Are you guys happy with that?’.”
Added Labuschagne: “David Warner is like spitting out his chicken, and goes: ‘Yeah, very’.”
Khawaja, also at the lunch, was surprised at what he witnessed.
“All of them had food in front of them, except Jonny Bairstow. I was thinking ‘that’s a little bit off’,” he said.
All-rounder Mitch Marsh said he was trying to finish his pumpkin soup at the time.
“Remember at school when the teacher tells you off and and you shouldn’t be laughing? Well, I was trying to eat my soup,” Marsh said.
“So if you can imagine, I’m eating my soup and I’m shaking like this (his shoulders heave), and I’m like just trying to look down, and then I look up at Jonny and I had pumpkin soup coming down my whites.”
Marsh said he thought “a few” English players were also laughing.
Khawaja added: “I walked out with a couple of the English boys and they were giggling. He still hasn’t eaten anything. He sat the whole time. I finished up and left and Jonny hadn’t touched anything.”
The response by the Australian batsmen suggests they have moved on from the stumping and the controversy that followed it, while dashing England batsmen Zak Crawley and Harry Brook were on Wednesday confirmed as potential draftees for the coming summer’s Big Bash League.
But prominent England broadcaster Piers Morgan took to social-media platform X, formerly Twitter, to air his displeasure at The Grade Cricketer video of the Australians, and urge England skipper Ben Stokes to use it for motivation.
“If there’s one thing worse than Australia so brazenly abusing the spirit of cricket, it’s seeing the miscreants now chortling away about it. Stokes should play this video to his team before the next Ashes series. In fact, he should play it to them every day between now and then,” Morgan wrote.
Bairstow dismissal, stumped off fast bowler Cameron Green, helped Australia secure a day-five victory, and take a 2-0 series lead.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
Most Viewed in Sport
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article