McCullum's Ashes warning: Australia will live to regret Bairstow decision

By Will Macpherson

Brendon McCullum says Australia will live to regret their decision to stump Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s, adding that he believes the incident will wreck relations between the teams and galvanise an “upset” England to fight back from 2-0 down in the Ashes series.

England coach McCullum was critical of Australia’s decision not to withdraw their appeal after wicketkeeper Alex Carey underarmed the ball towards the stumps, catching Bairstow napping when he considered Cameron Green’s over to be complete.

The dismissal has divided the cricketing world. At the conclusion of the game, England captain Ben Stokes said he would have withdrawn an appeal, while his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins stuck to his guns.

It is understood that Bairstow reacted angrily to the method of dismissal when he returned to the England dressing room, while an MCC investigation is ongoing after the Australian team were heckled as they returned to the Pavilion, with three members suspended while it is completed.

At the end of the game, which England lost by 43 runs, McCullum said he “can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer with them any time soon”, which “disappointed” his Australian counterpart Andrew McDonald. McCullum has since doubled down on his belief that the once-cordial relations between the teams will nosedive.

“I imagine it will affect it [the spirit of series], 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 galvanised unit up there [the England dressing room] and we saw the fight from the skipper [Stokes], 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.

“I don’t know if it’s anger, but the unit is galvanised. There are times as a coach where you’ve got to reduce emotion because it’s going to bubble over and you can make poor decisions, there’s times when you allow emotion to go because it’s going to galvanise the unit. That’s what I felt this emotion did for the side. I looked around the group and the guys were a little upset. If that helps us to win those key moments in the next test, then I’m all for it.”

When McCullum says Australia will have to “live with” their decision, he is speaking from experience. As New Zealand’s wicketkeeper he ran out Muttiah Muralitharan in similarly controversial circumstances in 2006, and he admitted that he regrets it.

“Yes that’s right, obviously I’ve made an apology to Murali in my Cowdrey Lecture [in 2016],” the 41-year-old said.

“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. 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.

“Obviously it’s a huge moment in the game and I think with the benefit of time and maturity as a player you understand how vital the spirit of the game is to this great game that we play, and you make decisions that you sometimes look back on and say did I get that right?

“Technically it was out, I just question that Jonny wasn’t looking to try and take a run. He felt as if the umpires had intimated that it was over and I think the evidence sort of backs that up as well.

“It is what it is and from our point of view I would hope we’d make a different decision in that circumstance and knowing the boys and knowing the skipper as well I think we would have.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission