Australia’s players have lifted the lid on the tense aftermath of Alex Carey’s controversial Ashes stumping of Jonny Bairstow.
In an interview with The Grade Cricketer, Mitch Marsh, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith described the tense — and at times hilarious — scenes in the Lord’s lunch room after Carey threw down the stumps when Bairstow left his crease.
Labuschagne said Bairstow was “absolutely steaming” and eventually asked the Australians: “are you guys happy with that?”
David Warner’s reply was “yeah, very”, which hardly did anything to lighten the mood.
It also didn’t help that UK broadcaster Sky Sports continued to show the controversial incident on loop so it was beamed into the lunch room for players to watch.
“The Sky crew knew that Jonny was in there and they just replayed it on the screen. And as you do, everyone’s watching,” Labuschagne said.
“Obviously seeing us all watch, he’s like ‘are you guys happy with that?’
“Dave Warner’s spitting out his chicken and goes, ‘yeah, very’. The only word said.”
Khawaja picks up the story: “All of them had food in front of them, except Jonny Bairstow. I was thinking that’s a little bit off,” he said.
All-rounder Mitch Marsh said he struggled to contain himself.
“Remember at school when the teacher tells you off and and you shouldn’t be laughing? Well, I was trying to eat my soup,” Marsh said.
“So if you can imagine, I’m eating my soup and I’m shaking like this and I’m like just trying to look down and then I look up at Jonny and I had pumpkin soup coming down my whites.”
Marsh said he was convinced at least “a few” English players were laughing as the drama unfolded.
Khawaja added: “I walked out with a couple of the English boys and they were giggling. He still hasn’t eaten anything. He sat the whole time. I finished up and left and Jonny hadn’t touched anything.”
The stumping off pace bowler Cameron Green helped Australia seal a fifth-day victory at Lord’s and take a 2-0 lead in the Ashes.
The incident was fiercely-debated around the world but Carey later said he would stump Bairstow again if given the opportunity.
Carey later said: “We got some pretty instant feedback. It‘s one of those things where a stumping that’s given out on field is turned into a massive story. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion and absolutely respect that. And then everyone’s entitled to their opinion on the spirit of cricket as well.”
