England Test captain Ben Stokes was shocked to see Australia wicket-keeper Alex Carey stump Jonny Bairstow in the way that he did during the second Ashes 2023 Test match at Lord’s. If truth be told, not only Stokes, the entire English team, and by that extension their country, was also left in a state of bemuse before expressing outrage.
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Speaking to Sky TV last month, former England pacer Stuart Broad had disclosed what Stokes told him after he exchanged words with Carey with regard to a debatable but legally valid dismissal.
“Stokesy said to me at Tea actually. He said, ‘I have seen people pick a fight with opposition players, but I’ve never seen anyone pick a fight with the whole team’,” Broad said on ‘A League Of Their Own’.
As it happened, Bairstow simply walked out of his crease to talk to Stokes without even realizing that Carey was looking to throw the ball in order to dismiss him. Within no time, Carey was barraged with a lot of hurtful comments.
English players, too, including Broad, didn’t leave him alone. Broad, who replaced Bairstow in the middle, didn’t take a lot of time before engaging in a war of words which he later admitted as “over-egging”.
“You’ll forever be remembered for that… literally, that’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in cricket, that,” Broad was heard on the stump mic.
In no mood of letting Carey go easily for no fault of his, he had taken a jibe by deliberately dragging his bat inside the batting crease. He also, at one point in time, mocked Marnus Labuschagne whilst he was fielding at short leg.
Implications Of Alex Carey Stumping Jonny Bairstow At Lord’s
The incident naturally took headlines all around the cricketing world. Besides Carey being abused, even Bairstow faced criticism for his carelessness. Ace India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, however, extended support towards the Englishman in spite of believing the dismissal to be within the spirit of the game.
Australia captain Pat Cummins, meanwhile, not only defended Alex Carey but also praised him for seeing an opportunity and taking full advantage of it. Even though Stokes also agreed with the legality of the dismissal, he wouldn’t have done the same as a captain irrespective of the match situation. For the unversed, Bairstow’s dismissal was a game-changing moment in the match.
With players breaking for lunch around 15 minutes after the dismissal, Australian openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja had to be pulled back by security officials after they opted to respond to angry English fans for their unruly behaviour. It was quite a scuffle, to say the least.
Three months after the incident, MCC banned one member and handed lengthy suspensions to two others for misbehaving with visiting cricketers. After the suspension, former Australian captain Mark Taylor considered the punishment to be hard but fair in an interaction with Nine’s Sports Sunday.
