‘Moral loss’: Divisive act shows pure England hypocrisy

England has opened Pandora’s box with a divisive cricket act that shows the Poms know nothing about the spirit of cricket.

Same old Poms, always hypocrites.

England has opened Pandora’s box with a sly act from wicketkeeper Ben Foakes during their thrilling victory against India in Hyderabad on Sunday night.

The tourists won the series opener by 28 runs after trailing by 170 runs at the end of India’s first innings.

It was a famous victory for “Bazball”, but also a devastating first moral loss for the Poms under coach Brendon McCullum.

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A storm is erupting over the moment late in the match when Foakes attempted to stump Jasprit Bumrah off the bowling of spinning hero Tom Hartley, who finished the second innings with 7/62 in his debut Test.

England is simply lucky Foakes mistimed his motion of whipping off the bails — or the enthralling victory would likely have been overshadowed by the divisive act.

Jasprit Bumrah was flying high when Ben Foakes reacted. Photo: Fox Cricket.

Cricket commentators have been poking fun at the Poms with many linking the near-dismissal to Alex Carey’s explosive dismissal of Jonny Bairstow that saw the 2023 Ashes series erupt.

With India 9/189, TV replays showed Bumrah had completed the back swing of a loose cross-bat slog that had left his body leaning towards the leg side.

The star fast-bowler attempted to get back upright on his feet with a jumping motion that saw both of his feet leave the ground.

After collecting the ball in his gloves, Foakes paused for a moment before noticing Bumrah’s strange jump. As quick as a flash he attempted to whip the bails off, but was too slow.

Ben Foakes reacted well after Bumrah had completed his defensive move. Photo: Fox Cricket.

Foakes screamed an appeal to the side-on umpire and the decision was sent to the video umpire.

Most noticeably, there was no attempt to withdraw the appeal or any hesitation not to proceed while England desperately hunted the final wicket needed.

Understandably, there are plenty of cricket commentators that aren’t ready to let England get away with such a blatant act of hypocrisy following the meltdown caused by Carey’s dismissal at Lord’s.

Australian players were branded cheats by the Barmy Army — and there were the infamous scenes of Australian players being abused as they walked through the famous Long Room on their way to the dressing room.

Same old Poms. Photo: Fox Cricket.

Moeen Ali, went even further and said Australian captain Pat Cummins “missed” a chance to reset his team’s reputation in the wake of the sandpaper scandal in South Africa in 2018.

It was Harry Brook that dropped the iconic phrase that victory in the final Test of the series would have been a “moral victory” for the home side.

Australia famously retained the Ashes during the spiteful series, but England had remained undefeated as moral world champions — until the owners of the spirit of cricket teetered briefly with Foakes’ stumping attempt on Sunday.

As you can see in the video player above, Foakes was of course well within his rights to attempt the dismissal — but the 2023 versions of spirit of cricket evangelists Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum must surely be rolling around in their Ashes graves.

The hypocritical response from Stokes and Foakes with the shoe on the other foot on Sunday has not gone overlooked, with SEN cricket commentator Adam Collins among those addressing the incident.

No doubt Broad and Bairstow to express their disappointment... Stokes and McCallum won’t be having beers with Foakes tonight either.

The English suffer their first moral loss! pic.twitter.com/p6enUm6JB7

— Pat McCormick (@pat_mccormickk) January 28, 2024

Sad that McCullum won’t be having a beer with Foakes after the Test, but there you are.

— Dan Liebke (@LiebCricket) January 28, 2024

I seriously hope foakes would of got destroyed for that, if that stumping was out, like Carey did #INDvENG

— coach lucas (@lucasr15sky) January 28, 2024

England winning the Test on that attempted stumping would have been delicious. #INDvENG

— Andrew Wu (@wutube) January 28, 2024

Foakes stumping appeal off Bumrah vs England’s overall views on spirit and run out at non striker’s end illustrates how hypocrite is English cricket

— Suvajit Mustafi (@RibsGully) January 28, 2024

Dear Ben foakes, where is your spirit of cricket?

— arfan (@Im__Arfan) January 28, 2024

England famously snubbed Australia from having a traditional post-series drink together at the end of the Fifth Test — with McCullum saying he couldn’t imagine having a beer with Australian players any time soon.

It will be interesting to see if Indian captain Rohit Sharma lets the opposition into their dressing room at the end of the series.

Attempting to take the high road, McCullum and Stokes famously said last year they would not have done the same thing as Carey and Cummins did during the Lord’s Test.

“I would have had to have a real think around the spirit of the game, and would I want to potentially win a game with something like that happening — and it would be no,” Stokes said.

Here we are six months later.

It’s easy to see why the Australian players have been able to look back at the historic series and laugh at the Old Enemy’s expense.

England captain Ben Stokes (r) celebrates with team mates after his run out. Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images.

Cummins, Mitchell Marsh and Mitchell Starc were all happy to make light of the furore when speaking with The Grade Cricketer in September.

Marsh spoke of his pain at the moral whitewash.

“Yeah, I think any time you lose an Ashes series 5-0, it’s always tough to take,” Marsh quipped, going on to reference English opener Zak Crawley’s remarks during the series about what a “fair” result looked like.

“Them being the greatest side to ever play Test cricket, 5-0 was probably fair.”

Cummins quipped: “It was a thumping, morally. Yeah, you can’t come back from it. So yeah, it’s something we’ll work on in the nets, somehow.

“Take some philosophy books or something.”

For the record, England’s victory on Sunday night was one of the finest results England cricket has known in recent times and they are rightfully celebrating.

Just as Australia has rightfully celebrated since retaining the Ashes.