‘Did England retire Ben Duckett?’ – Simon Taufel hits out at Spirit of Cricket ‘hypocrisy’ over Carey-Bairstow stumping

Carey’s controversial stumping of Bairstow has made headlines in the cricketing world even as the two teams gear up for the third Ashes Test, from July 6 at Leeds. There has been plenty of chatter around the dismissal, which, despite being within the Laws, has split the verdict over its fairness, with many questioning the sportsmanship of the Australian side.

Taufel, however, called out the ‘hypocrisy’ of Carey’s critics, with eight pondering questions in a lengthy LinkedIn post.

“Was Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal at Lords a breach of the Spirit of Cricket? This is a question I have been inundated with, so I thought it best to share my thoughts publicly by asking everyone a question or eight to consider…

1. Have you seen any umpire tell a fielding side that the keeper standing back is not allowed to attempt a stumping?

2. Was there a complaint from anyone when Bairstow tried to stump Marnus exactly the same way in the first innings?

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3. What has Jonny Bairstow said about his dismissal? He has been very quiet. Why?

4. My experience is when people don’t like a dismissal under the Laws of Cricket, they cite the Spirit of Cricket to support their view.

5. Which part of the codified Preamble (the Spirit of Cricket) was breached by the fielding side?

6. What did the fielding side do in effecting a legitimate dismissal that unfairly impacted the ability of the batter in their attempt not to be dismissed? (Did they run into him or distract him or prevent him making good his ground?)

7. Should a batter be immune from dismissal as per the Laws by simply being negligent (and leaving his ground too early)?

8. Did England retire Ben Duckett when they disagreed with the Starc catch decision as per the Laws and umpires’ decision?

The hypocrisy and lack of consistency from some people and groups is quite interesting and concerning for the future of our game.

Maybe I am the odd one out here?

The good news is that we are actively engaged with Test cricket, the best form of the game.”

The Jonny Bairstow-Marnus Labuschagne incident (point two):

A footage from the Lord’s Test match showed England wicketkeeper Bairstow trying to run out striker Labuschagne in a way similar to how Carey eventually ran Bairstow out.

After Labuschagne had shouldered his arms, Bairstow collected the ball and immediately under-armed it towards the stumps at the striker’s end in an attempt to run out Labuschagne, who was inside his crease.

Taufel argued that Bairstow had attempted to dismiss Labuschagne in the exact same way as Carey did, but no complaints have been heard about the incident.

The Ben Duckett-Mitchell Starc incident (point eight):

Shortly before stumps on day four, Duckett uppercut a high bouncer straight to Starc at deep third. Starc caught the ball close to the boundary and started celebrating, as Duckett walked back to the pavilion. However, the catch was eventually disallowed as replays showed Starc was not in “control” of the catch. Duckett walked back to bat soon after.

Taufel has questioned the “lack of consistency” of people with this example. He wonders why Duckett, who had already started walking back under the assumption that he had been out, was not retired by England, and why he had instead walked back out when a decision was taken according to the Laws of the game.

Earlier, R Ashwin too had lashed out at the individuals focusing on the Spirit of Cricket debate instead of applauding Carey’s awareness: “We must get one fact loud and clear. ‘The keeper would never have a dip at the stumps from that far out in a test match unless he or his team have noticed a pattern of the batter leaving his crease after leaving a ball like Bairstow did.’ We must applaud the game smarts of the individual rather than skewing it towards unfair play or spirit of the game.”