‘They’ve got to live with that’: Brendon McCullum resolute over Australia’s controversial stumping

Brendon McCullum apologised for similar controversy from his playing days in Spirit of Cricket lecture

Brendon McCullum believes the fallout over Jonny Bairstow’s controversial stumping will affect the relationship between the two teams.

With all still to play for on the morning of day five, and England 193 for five chasing 371 to level the series, Bairstow was out in a way that has sparked debate, and even Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has added his voice to the debate.

Bairstow ducked a bouncer, which went straight through to Alex Carey behind the stumps, paused for a moment then went to speak to his batting partner Ben Stokes, just as the wicketkeeper threw the ball at the stumps and appealed. The decision was made after an umpire review and he was out.

The chorus of boos that followed has not been heard at Lord’s before, nor the chants of “same old Aussies always cheating” or “cheat, cheat, cheat” when Josh Hazlewood was starting his run up.

While the act led to an animosity that went too far among Marylebone Cricket Club members who verbally assaulted and even reportedly tripped the Australian players on their way back to the dressing room, it has sparked a debate over the spirit of the game.

There were critics before the series started by some, including Michael Vaughan, who said the players were too friendly with each other, and that it could lack the bite of the past, but McCullum believes the relationship has been altered by the events of the final day of the Lord’s Test.

“I imagine it will affect it (relations between the sides), I think it has to,” McCullum said.

“In the end, they made a play, they’ve got to live with that, we would have made a different play but that’s life.

“From our point of view, we believe that we can still come back in this series, and that’s where our focus has got to be.

“What I will say is it’s a galvanized unit up there [the England dressing-room] and we saw the fight from the skipper, Broady (Stuart Broad) and the boys at the end there as well, which shows how much this means to the side.

“We’ll lick our wounds and try and come back and rectify things.”

England head coach Brendon McCullum, pictured, was unimpressed with Alex Carey’s antics (Mike Egerton/PA) (PA Wire)

During his own playing days, McCullum stumped both Chris Mpofu as the Zimbabwean went to celebrate his partner Blessing Mahwire’s maiden test half-century, and Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan when he congratulated teammate Kumar Sangakkara on reaching his ton.

“Obviously I’ve made an apology to Murali in my Cowdrey Lecture, which when I was a younger man I didn’t quite understand the significance of what the game and the spirit of the game means to the game,” the England head coach said.

“It’s what the defining point of the game is compared to others, and it’s only with the benefit of time and experience that we’re able to learn that and cherish it.

“In time, we’ll see, but I get the feeling that it might have an effect on them (Australia).”

England’s Jonny Bairstow looks frustrated after being run out by Australia’s Alex Carey during day five of the second Ashes test match at Lord’s (PA) (PA Wire)

Only once in history has a team come back from 2-0 down to win the Ashes, but McCullum and England, remained confident.

“Of course we do (still believe), 3-2 has got a nice ring to it, we’ve got to polish up a couple of the areas where the game has sat on a knife-edge and we haven’t been able to grab it.

“We knew coming into this series it was going to be tight and there was going to be those moments. If we can do that, there’s no reason why we can’t bounce back.

“Morale is high and we’ve played some good cricket amongst things as well, and we look forward to the opportunity.”