Manchester: Australia’s wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey said he had no regrets over the controversial stumping of his England counterpart Jonny Bairstow in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s and expressed surprise over some nasty stuff being said about it since then.
Bairstow was batting on 10 and England were at 193/5 in the 52nd over when he ducked under a bouncer from Cameron Green and inadvertently walked out of his crease. On seeing that, Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey immediately directed an underarm throw after catching the delivery, and jumped in joy after firing an accurate throw towards the stumps.
It led to chaos in the middle as Bairstow believed the ball was dead, with Australia immediately going for an appeal. On-field umpires Ahsan Raza and Chris Gaffaney sent the decision upstairs, where TV umpire Marais Erasmus confirmed Bairstow’s dismissal, as England eventually lost by 43 runs despite a heroic 155 from captain Ben Stokes.
“If there was an opportunity to get a stumping, I definitely would (do that). To see how much has played out since then it’s been a little bit surprising. There’s some nasty stuff been said but…it is the Ashes.”
“There was nasty stuff said before that as well. I feel really well supported. I think the whole group does. From Australia I still think we’ve got lots of fans and from England, I don’t think we’ve made any, but we probably didn’t lose any,” said Carey to reporters ahead of the fourth Ashes Test starting on July 19 at Old Trafford.
On seeing the out decision, the Australian players celebrated while the crowd began to chant “same old Aussies, always cheating”, leading to the ‘spirit of cricket’ being reignited all over again. Three MCC members were suspended for abusing Australian players in the long room during lunch break on day five.
“It’s one of those things where a stumping that’s given out on the field is turned into a massive story. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I absolutely respect that. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion on the spirit of cricket as well.”
“Not just myself, the whole group’s had some stuff spoken about them. But we’re really tight. We understand what’s important and who matters and those guys definitely have our back.”
“We’re all in it together, we were all out there, all walked through the Long Room together, post-match we all discussed it together. Don’t think the group would do anything differently,” added Carey.
The left-handed batter further explained how he grabbed the chance to have Bairstow stumped. “We were switched on to the fact that it was a bouncer plan and it felt like Jonny was pretty switched on to getting out of the way, he wasn’t playing any shots. When he ducked his first movement was pretty much out of his crease, so I instinctively grabbed the ball, threw the stumps down and the rest is history.”
Carey signed off by revealing that he had been out via that mode of dismissal early in his grade cricket career in South Australia. “I’ve definitely been out to that a few times and I’ve tried to do it in the past as well. My first A-grade game in South Australia, I was out that way. And when I walked off, I was pretty disappointed.”
“(The) captain came up to me, he said, ‘you’ll remember to keep your foot behind the line next time.’ From my point of view, I wasn’t called (out) on it back when I’d have tried it about the spirit of cricket and when I was given out in the same sort of manner, I didn’t question it either.”
(IANS)
