Former England opener Mark Butcher is confused by the uproar over Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal in the second Ashes Test, saying that “it’s just as plain as day out” and the chatter in cricketing circles is “nonsense”. Lord’s was the hotbed of controversy on the final day of the second Test when England batter Bairstow ducked a slow bouncer from Australia’s Cameron Green and ventured out of the crease thinking that the ball was already ‘dead’. However, wicketkeeper Alex Carey played within the rules and broke the stumps, and third umpire Marais Erasmus adjudged it stumped in favour of Australia.
Australia won the Test by 43 runs to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Butcher, 50, who played 71 Tests and scored 4,288 runs, said almost everyone he had spoken to following the incident thinks Bairstow was out.
“For me, it’s just as plain as day out. And pretty much to all of the other professional cricketers I have spoken to, they all say exactly the same thing,” Butcher told the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast.
“Why didn’t he (Bairstow) make sure that he knew where the ball was and what was going on before he left (the crease)?” added Butcher.
He blamed Bairstow for his own dismissal saying he should have known where the ball was when he ventured out of the crease.
“I was listening to it on the radio. Nobody had really described what had happened apart from, ‘oh no, oh this, oh dear’,” “So I got on the phone to call my old man (father Alan, also a former cricketer). I said, ‘Just tell me what happened, just walk me through it’. So he walked me through it and I said, ‘So that’s out then, isn’t it?’ And he said, ‘yeah’.
Several experts had started questioning the spirit of the game following the incident but Butcher asked what was the England batter up to when he left the crease.
“What was he doing? Where was he going? Of course, now we’ve got an international incident. We’ve got people saying they’re not going to have a beer with each other after the game.” England head coach Brendon McCullum had said post-match that he “can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer anytime soon (with Australians)”.
“And what’s worse, people who have definitely done worse things being holier than thou on social media saying how awful the whole thing is and how you would never have done anything like it. Nonsense.” The third Test is scheduled to be played at Headingley from July 6.
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