Ashes 2023: Was the Jonny Bairstow incident on the final day at Lord’s within the spirit of cricket?

It is the explosive incident that has the cricket world torn. Was the dismissal of Jonny Bairstow fair? Hear from all sides, watch the footage and have your say.

How crazy a Test was that? Well, consider that Jonny Bairstow lifted a protester from the arena, and it wasn’t his most memorable exit from Lord’s during the match.

That on Saturday Nathan Lyon received a standing ovation as he hopped down the steps of the pavilion, and that by the following afternoon, the Aussies were being booed off the ground amid claims of unwarranted physical contact from MCC members.

That Ben Stokes bowled 12 straight overs of short-pitched bowling on Saturday and then had enough energy to blast 155 on a dodgy knee, somehow exceeding his feats from Headingley four years ago and still losing.

That Mitchell Starc being denied a catch in the outfield – a decision labelled by Glenn McGrath a “disgrace” – was not nearly the most hotly debated third umpire call of the game.

And perhaps most remarkably that Brendon McCullum suggested that he’d turn down a beer with anyone.

That Australia leads the Ashes 2-0 seemed almost immaterial in the immediate aftermath of another stupidly wacky Test.

Pat Cummins talking to Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow after the incident. Picture: Getty Images

Of course the thing about the old gentlemanly English game of cricket – yes the same game found in a report to be systemically sexist, racist and classist only a week ago – is that it often feels like it matters less who won that who can take the moral high ground.

Having crowed in the aftermath of the first Test about feeling like they’d won a match they’d lost, England is now talking about how they wouldn’t have wanted to win the second Test in the manner in which Australia did.

England captain Stokes made it clear he would have withdrawn an appeal had the shoe been on the other foot when Alex Carey piffed the ball to find Bairstow short of his ground, while coach McCullum was so unimpressed at the way Australia handled the episode that he told the BBC “I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer any time soon.”

This is the same McCullum who when playing for New Zealand in 2006 ran out Muttiah Muralitharan while he was celebrating mid-pitch with Kumar Sangakkara, who had just scored a century. McCullum would a decade later say that he had not acted within the “spirit of cricket” in doing so and that he regretted the move.

Alex Carey removed Bairstow while he was out of his crease. Picture: Getty Images

Will Aussie skipper Pat Cummins one day feel the same way about his decision to let this appeal stand? That is impossible to say, but in the immediate aftermath, he showed no hint of remorse, noting that Bairstow had himself sought to dismiss Australian batters in the way he was ultimately removed.

“I thought it was fair,” Cummins said.

“You see Jonny do it all the time. He did it day one to David Warner. He did it to Steve (Smith) in 2019. It’s a really common thing for keepers to do if they see a batter keep leaving the crease. Kez (Carey), full credit to him, saw the opportunity. I think he did it a few balls beforehand. He rolled it at the stumps, Jonny left his crease, you leave the rest to the umpires.”

Stokes countered that the situation was different because it was the last ball of the over, and that there had been debate as to whether the umpire had called “over.’

In an issue clouded with shades of grey, the hordes want to see the issue as black and white. Of course they do. Fandom doesn’t tend to do reason or nuance very well, certainly not when it’s the Ashes.

What is evident though is that Cummins and his men are paying the price for the sins of Australian teams past. When it comes to the spirit of cricket, New Zealand will usually be given the benefit of the doubt (see McCullum), while Australia won’t.

Certainly not when you’re only five years removed from Cape Town and fielding an XI featuring Steve Smith and David Warner as well as several others who were in the Newlands dressing room at the time the excrement hit the air ventilator.

“Same old Aussies, always cheating,” bellowed the fans at the home of cricket, and when you’re the mob who gave the world underarm and Sandpapergate, you’ve just got to cop it on the chin.

Jonny Bairstow and Travis Head exchange words after the incident. Picture: Getty Images

And the thing about Cummins, as we’ve seen again and again, is that he doesn’t seem to worry about what others think. Yet again he presented as a man entirely comfortable in his own skin and his team’s conduct.

“The spirit of cricket is really important,” Cummins said.

“I think the way we’ve gone about it over the last couple of years has been fantastic, absolutely fantastic, and we should be really proud as a group.”

That is a leader willing to wear the public relations bullets. And on track to soon be holding up the Ashes trophy.