Jonny Bairstow speaks on controversial Alex Carey Ashes stumping in new book

Jonny Bairstow has reopened wounds from his Ashes stumping in a new book where fellow Englishman Stuart Broad also relived the “chaos”.

Jonny Bairstow has doubled down on accusations of unfair play by Australia in the Ashes but Stuart Broad has adopted a different tone and said his piercing sledge of Alex Carey was nothing more than a gee-up.

Bairstow is still blowing up about Carey stumping him during the Lord’s Test and does himself no favours by also trying to cast shade on Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne for suggesting they appealed for catches in the Ashes that did not carry.

Plenty would agree with Bairstow that Australia should have rescinded its appeal for the polarising stumping at Lord’s but it is petulant to start pointing the finger over other innocuous incidents which he goes on to admit are “part and parcel of the game”.

Bairstow’s comments in a new book titled Baz Ball: The Inside Story of a Test Cricket Revolution by esteemed UK journalists Nick Hoult and Lawrence Booth were said a week before the final Ashes Test at The Oval when England skipper Ben Stokes went ahead with an appeal for a catch against Smith despite losing control of the ball.

Australia will no doubt be in equal parts annoyed and bemused at Bairstow’s latest foray into the debate but the book contains another passage that should be a must read for Alex Carey, who lost form – and now his place as Aussie World Cup keeper – in the wake of the Lord’s furore.

Australian all-rounder Mitch Marsh opted against inflaming tensions when asked about Bairstow’s provocative remarks on Tuesday in Delhi.

“It seems like a lifetime ago given how much cricket we’ve played since,” Marsh said.

“We’re really focused on the World Cup. There’s obviously always going to be chat when it comes to Australia-England. Things will always come back over the years. But right now we’re solely focused on the World Cup.”

Pat Cummins and Alex Carey celebrate Jonny Bairstow’s stumping. Picture: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Broad infamously strode to the middle at Lord’s and told Carey: “That’s all you’re ever going to be remembered for, that,” and after repeating the cutting sledge again, Carey replied, simply: “Yeah.”

Since the explosive events in that second Test, Carey has passed 30 only once in 15 innings — a 99 in a warm-up ODI in South Africa — and after just two matches of the World Cup he was brutally axed for Josh Inglis.

Carey and teammates have tried to play down any correlation between the incident and the star’s form, but it’s hard to believe the two aren’t linked in some way, particularly after Carey bravely revealed to this masthead how his wife and children had become targets for disgraceful social media threats.

Bairstow was furious. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

However, a reflection from Broad on his savage comments that day at Lord’s can hopefully help Carey lance the boil and quickly recapture the presence and contributions that had made him one of the genuine shining lights in Australian cricket.

“I wasn’t really that angry,” Broad tells Hoult and Booth in their new book.

“I’ve seen loads of things on the cricket field. But it was a good way of getting involved, creating a bit of chaos and putting doubt in their mind. Because ultimately they’d won the game at that point.

“So it was to try and take them away from what they were doing, and cause carnage.”

Broad won that battle, but Carey doesn’t need to lose the war.

Carey acted within the rules of the game and he can now shrug off Broad’s comments from the time as just gamesmanship from one of the great showmen the game has seen and look the world in the eye once more.

After dropping Carey from the World Cup XI in the manner they have, Australia really must make it their No. 1 priority to rally around Carey and build him back up.

Carey is a fine person, a great cricketer and a fair competitor who doesn’t deserve to have this incident impact on his career, even if he might one day ask himself whether he would do it all again knowing the blowback it has caused.

Originally published as Jonny Bairstow speaks on controversial Alex Carey Ashes stumping in new book