Tim Paine blasts Jonny Bairstow as ugly Ashes revelation takes new twist

Former Australian captain Tim Paine has blasted divisive England star Jonny Bairstow after the wicketkeeper took aim at the Aussies over the infamous Ashes incident this year. During the fiery Ashes series in the UK, cricket players and fans erupted after Bairstow was dismissed in a controversial manner.

Bairstow walked out of his crease in the third test before the umpire had called the ball dead with Aussie wicketkeeper Alex Carey reacting immediately after catching the ball and throwing it at the stumps. Bairstow unwittingly remained out of his crease and was run out in a move that caused anger from the host nation.

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The Englishman has stayed relatively silent over the international sporting furore, despite Ben Stokes taking a dig at the Aussies for accepting the dismissal. Pat Cummins fired back after the furore with plenty of former players agreeing the wicket was clearly within the rules.

This week, comments from Bairstow were released in a book - written by cricket writers Nick Hoult and Lawrence Booth – titled Bazball: The inside story of a Test Cricket Revolution.

"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," he said shared in an excerpt on the UK Telegraph.

Bairstow then took a dig at Australia being fine with this form of dismissal. "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 read.

However, his comment has certainly caught the attention of the Australian public. And Paine has called out Bairstow for a 2014 incident he was involved in, which saw the Englishman remove a batter in controversial circumstances and then defend his dismissal. The footage emerged at the time of the Ashes and Paine has pointed out that Bairstow claimed it was 'fair game' to take the wicket if it was within the rules.

“It’s been going through social media at the moment, the time Samit Patel was batting, ball went down the legside, Jonny Bairstow was keeping up to the stumps, he wasn’t trying to gain an advantage, he’d started in his crease, he wasn’t leaving, he simply lifted his foot up to balance himself again and mark centre, like Jonny did and Jonny whipped off the bails," Paine said on SEN Radio.

“Social media is brilliant isn’t it — nothing gets lost anymore. Samit Patel wasn’t trying to gain an advantage, and in your words Jonny, that’s fair game. It’s within the rules, it was out. Get over it and move on, we’ve spoken about it so much. You can’t have your cake and eat it. You’ve done it yourself in the past, when it happens to you, you’ve got to cop it on the chin.”

Pain reiterated that since it was within the laws of the game, the England players had to move on from the dismissal.

Jonny Bairstow comments prompt backlash

Former Australian fast-bowler Trent Copeland also weighed-in on the drama. The recently retired first class veteran said Bairstow shouldn't act like he is the bastion of the 'spirit of cricket'. “Clearly you haven’t moved on because you are still talking about it,” Copeland said on SEN Radio. “The simple facts are these. Stay in your crease, mate, and stop blaming other people for it."

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