Jonny Bairstow re-opens old Ashes wounds over Alex Carey stumping
The English batsmen has spoken about being controversially stumped by Australian wicket-keeper Alex Carey.
Four months after England batsman Jonny Bairstow was controversially stumped by Australian wicket-keeper Alex Carey after wandering out of his crease at Lord's – triggering an international sporting scandal - a new book is set to re-open old wounds.
Bairstow remained tightlipped in the days and weeks after the incident, which sparked an ugly altercation between Lord's members and Australian players in the Long Room and attracted headlines around the world. But in a book written by cricket writers Nick Hoult and Lawrence Booth – titled Bazball: The inside story of a Test Cricket Revolution – the feisty Englishman was tempted out of his crease a month after the event and swats the Aussies over the fence.
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Speaking about Carey's contentious move, Bairstow declares: "It wouldn’t come into my mind (to do it) because you’re stood in your crease. "If you start in your crease, and not trying to take a run, and you finish in your crease (then it's a dead ball). If you try to gain an advantage, then it’s fair game. But if you’re starting in your crease, you’ve ducked, tap, tap, scratched. I’ve even dragged my bat, looked up, and then gone."
When it's suggested Australian players don't have a problem with that mode of dismissal because it happens at club level, Bairstow responds: "Does it? First time I’ve heard that. I’ve never seen it happen from someone starting in their crease.
"I don’t think you want that filtering down into kids’ cricket. Look at the Mankads and everything like that. You want young kids to be out there batting and having fun, not thinking about whether the fielders might do this or that.
"It might tarnish people's enjoyment of the game that we’re trying to get kids into. You want to be out there batting and bowling, rather than thinking about the 11 different ways you can get someone out."
Bairstow says England want to win "the right way"
Bairstow had a verbal clash with Carey and Australian skipper Pat Cummins as the players shared lunch that day, attempting to also drag Steve Smith and David Warner into the discussion. "There’s nothing I can do about it," the England veteran tells the book's authors.
"The decision was that I was out, and I moved on. I’ve not brought it up since. I’ve kept quiet. It’s on them. If that’s how they want to go about it and win a cricket game or what have you, then so be it."
The book suggests England, under the stewardship of coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes, want to win games "the right way".
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