When Bairstow came out of his crease after the final ball of an over on the final day at Lord’s, wicketkeeper Carey lobbed the ball underarm at the stumps and hit with Bairstow well out of his ground, oblivious to the fact that the ball had been bowled. Over was not called and he was awarded by the TV umpire, but Australia’s decision not to withdraw their appeal led to claims by the England players that the stumping, although legal, was not in the spirit of the game.
The stumping incident underlined a tightly drawn series. But Bairstow remained tight-lipped about it until the publication of extracts from the new book by Lawrence Booth and Nick Hoult. Baseball: the Inside Story of Test Cricket Revolution in the English newspaper the Telegraph on monday
“The decision was that I was out, and I’ve moved on,” Bairstow told the authors in an interview after a networking session at The Oval ahead of the fifth Test of the series. “Since then I have not spoken it. I have been silent. It is on them.
“If that’s how they want to do it and win a cricket game or what have you, then so be it.”
“My opinion was that it was out, obviously,” Moeen told the authors of Baseball. “I just thought it was a great opportunity for Pat Cummins to put to bed a lot of things that had happened before.
“Not just go to bed, but take away that label that they had for a while with ‘Sandpapergate.’
Bairstow said there is a difference between stumping a batsman sneaking out of their crease for cynical purposes and catching a batsman unaware, as Australia did.
“If you’re trying to get an advantage, then it’s fair game,” he said. “But if you start in your crease, you ducked, tapped, tapped, scratched. I even dragged my bat, looked up, and then walked away.
“I’ve never seen it happen from someone starting in their crease. I don’t think you want that filtering down into children’s cricket.”
Bairstow also took issue with some of Australia’s behavior on the field. He doubted whether the ball had hit the ground before Steven Smith checked it to dismiss Joe Root on day two of the Lord’s Test, and questioned an appeal for a catch by Marnus Labuschagne earlier in the series.
“There’s speculation around everything,” he said. “Fingers under the ball when the ball is still touching the ground. Celebrating when the ball touched the ground. Marnus celebrated at Edgbaston at short leg.
“Then the one ‘Rooty’ fell to at Lord’s when (Smith) said his fingers were under the ball. However, they were spread wide. But that was a given, that’s fine – it’s part and parcel of the game and the decisions the referees give.”
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