Just when you think England’s hypocrisy can’t sink any lower, more footage comes to light and leaves them with even more egg on their faces.
Australia claimed a second straight Test win in controversial fashion when England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow was stumped at the hands of Alex Carey.
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Bairstow went walk about a split second after ducking under a bouncer and Carey, having spotted him doing the same throughout his innings, launched the ball towards the stumps and sent the bails flying.
England weren’t happy, despite the dismissal being well within the rules of the game, and quickly invoked the spirit of the game debate.
Attempting to play that card and call out Australia for being “cheats” and not playing sportsmanlike cricket, England have found themselves buried under a mountain of moments that exposed them as hypocrites.
First it was England coach Brendon McCullum – who was exposed after his post-game comments took aim at the Aussies despite him doing exactly the same countless times throughout his career.
Now it’s Bairstow’s turn.
The English keeper wasn’t happy with his dismissal and delivered a colder than the flip side of the pillow handshake during post-game proceedings.
But thanks to the magical work of social media sleuths, he can sit alongside his fellow teammates in the hypocrite stands.
Vision surfaced of Bairstow committing a contentious stumping in a county cricket game, using the rules to his advantage.
The video shows Samit Patel leaving a delivery for Nottinghamshire and Bairstow waiting with his gloves next to the stumps, before whipping off the bails as Patel raised his foot off the ground after a delay.
But it’s his gloating comments after the match that have now come back to haunt him and leave him with no leg to stand on.
“I saw him lift his foot and I took the bails off, luckily it was one of those that kind of went for us there,” Bairstow said.
“I saw Matt Prior do it against South Africa at Lord’s and it’s just something that’s luck of the draw. You can’t really practice, it’s just one that goes your way.”
But it’s his final 12-word remark that really puts the nail in the coffin and shuts down any argument England have attempted to make since the loss.
“It’s within the rules of the game and that’s how it is,” he said.
Another angle that deserves to be highlighted from those remarks is the Prior stumping that occured at Lord’s.
In the wake of Carey’s dismissal of Bairstow, the Lord’s crowd turned as feral as fans jostling in the Ticketek lounge hoping to nab Taylor Swift tickets.
But would you believe that when an England player successfully pulled off the reportedly contentious dismissal, that same crowd was delighted.
Instead of cheating chants breaking out, the English faithful and players revelled in delight as South Africa’s Morne Morkel was sent on his way.
The first two Tests have been remarkably tight affairs and we should be talking about just how good this series has been.
Unfortunately England are intent on shining a light on anything but the results, as they look to be the first squad since Don Bradman to come back and win from 2-0 down.
The third Test gets underway on Thursday with Australia able to capture the Ashes urn with a victory. Even a draw would see the Aussies retain the urn.
England have their backs firmly against the wall, but if you were to believe them … they’re winning the Ashes on moral grounds.
