England bowler Stuart Broad claims Australia captain Pat Cummins will come to regret his handling of the controversial stumping of England’s Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s.
Alex Carey’s opportunistic stumping of his fellow wicketkeeper during the dramatic conclusion to the second Ashes Test sparked fury from fans and members at the ‘home of cricket’ and the row shows no signs of abating.
Broad replaced Bairstow in the middle following the incident, with Australia going on to win and take a 2-0 lead.
The England tail-ender insisted “zero advantage” came from Bairstow straying from his crease and said Cummins will eventually think upholding the appeal was the wrong play.
“What amazed me, and what I told the Australians I could not believe as we left the field at lunch, was that not one senior player among them – and I very much understand in the emotion of the game that the bowler and wicketkeeper would have thought ‘that’s out’ – questioned what they had done,” Broad wrote in the Daily Mail.
Jonny Bairstow looks frustrated after being run out by Alex Carey. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
“Especially given what their team has been through over recent years, with all their cultural change.
“Not one of them said ‘Hang on, lads. I’m not really sure about this’.
“Ultimately, Pat Cummins is a really great guy and I would be amazed, once the emotion settles, if he does not sit back and think ‘I got that one wrong’.”
Ex-players, pundits and even British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak weighed in on the debate, while anger in the crowd at the manner of Bairstow’s exit spilled over into the usually restrained Long Room at Lord’s, where Australian players Usman Khawaja and David Warner were involved in heated exchanges.
Broad, too, admitted the moment got the better of him as he joined captain Ben Stokes, watching from the other end as the skipper hit a remarkable 155 in a forlorn effort to level the series.
“The red mist came over me, too … I just said to Pat on repeat ‘All these boos are for you, for your decision’,” he wrote.
“To Alex Carey, I said: ‘This is what you’ll be remembered for, and that’s such a shame.’
“To repeat, it was not the act that annoyed me, it was the fact they upheld the appeal.
“At the end of that first session, the change from the roar the Long Room gave to Ben Stokes to the boos they reserved for the Australians walking in was stark.
“They knew way before that point how controversial a decision they had made. I am not saying that the MCC members shouting at players was right but having toured Australia four times, I certainly do not think hostile behaviour towards away teams is unusual.”
He admitted England tried the same tactic but claimed the circumstances were different.
England’s Stuart Broad grounds his bat as Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey look on. (Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
“I have seen a clip from earlier in the match when in his guise as wicketkeeper, Jonny himself threw the ball at the stumps. But that was because Marnus Labuschagne was batting outside of his crease — in doing so, attempting to take the lbw out of the game. In other words, seeking an advantage.”
Broad is renowned for using gamesmanship to his advantage and former Australian fast bowler Damien Fleming in his column for The Roar pointed out that his record is hardly squeaky clean when it comes to chivalry on the field.
“Broad was adding to the theatre by putting his bat well behind the crease at the end of every over to get the crowd riled up. I would have loved it if Carey had been able to run him out too when he was trying to do that,” he wrote.
“I found it rich that this guy was ripping into Carey about that incident affecting his legacy and this is the same Stuart Broad who nicked one to first slip and didn’t walk. Once again, it’s contradictory behaviour.”
with AAP
