Pat Cummins feels that Alex Carey’s infamous stumping of Jonny Bairstow during the Lord’s Test in the 2023 Ashes got a lot of people involved in cricket, which was good news for the sport.
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Alex Carey’s stumping of Jonny Bairstow on the fifth morning of the second Test match, at Lord’s, was the talk of the town for the rest of the Ashes: heated debates and arguments surrounding the Spirit of Cricket engulfed the discourse around the series.
The England team, including captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, made their opinions clear in no uncertain terms that they would have acted differently had they been in Australia’s position with respect to the Bairstow stumping.
Cummins and co, on the other hand, stood behind Carey and their decision to uphold their appeal, citing that the dismissal was clearly legal under the laws of the game.
More than three weeks after the series ended, Cummins spoke on Channel Seven’s Sunrise on how he felt the backlash surrounding the Bairstow stumping was good for cricket: “I think the great thing was how many people were speaking about cricket.
It was the middle of winter [in Australia] and cricket was the main sport for a couple of months. So personally, I loved how much people were focusing on Test cricket and loving the contest each day. And also the old rivalry between us and them, every Ashes series seems to drop something.”
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Cummins also spoke on the ugly behaviour of the MCC members inside the Lord’s Long Room after the incident: “It certainly was a fair old tantrum. I haven’t experienced anything like that before … but I will say across my career, I’ve seen that type of dismissal at least 20 times, and it is always out.
“Davey [David Warner] and Ussie [Usman Khawaja] went back at a few of the members following some comments, it was getting pretty heated. I got the gossip from the other guys, then we all took a deep breath and looked to stay composed. We had a break, and then reset.”
England came back strongly to draw the series 2-2 after losing the first two Test matches. While disappointed, Cummins was also happy to have retained the Ashes: “Our aim was to retain the Ashes, which we did, but even now I look back and some moments which if they went our way could have seen a series win as opposed to a draw.
“We also retained the urn over there in 2019, so I am very proud of what we have achieved. Winning away from home is tough.”
