Former England batsman Mark Butcher can’t understand all the chatter surrounding Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal in the second Ashes Test.
The stumping of Bairstow by Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey has overshadowed the win at Lord’s which put the tourists 2-0 up.
Many of the English persuasion have questioned if the wicket was executed in the spirit of the game.
However, Butcher can’t see what all the fuss is about as Australia dismissed Bairstow within the rules of the sport.
The 71-Test former opener said he and his father Alan, also a former cricketer, were both adamant it was out.
“I was listening to it on the radio. Nobody had really described what had happened apart from, ‘oh no, oh this, oh dear’,” Butcher told the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast.
“So I got on the phone to call my old man, 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’.
“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 couldn’t fathom what Bairstow was up to when he left his crease after evading a Cameron Green bouncer, leaving us with an incident of international interest.
He added: “What was he doing? Where was he going?
“Why didn’t he make sure that he knew where the ball was and what was going on before he left?
“And of course now we’ve got an international incident.
“We’ve got Jonny Farquaad or whatever his name is getting banned from the MCC. We’ve got people saying they’re not going to have a beer with each other after the game.
“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 fun and games will continue at Headingley in Leeds when the third Test gets underway from 8pm AEST on Thursday.
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