Can Spirit Of Cricket Sideshow Give England An Extra Life In Ashes?

The headlines of Australians (allegedly) breaking the spirit of cricket at the home of the game have saved Ben Stokes’s team from closer scrutiny. The hosts are 2-0 down in a five-match Ashes series, but the narrative has changed after Alex Carey stumped Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s.

Piers Morgan is having a field day and can’t find any Australians to come on his show to defend Carey’s actions. If this is cheap amateur dramatics to deflect from England’s shortcomings, so be it. The Ashes is almost over but, paradoxically, it is now a contest with an edge.

Bairstow thought it was the end of the over at Lord’s on Sunday afternoon and wandered out of his crease. Carey threw down the stumps as the ball was not deemed dead. It was out as applied by the rule book, the commentators and those that survey the minutiae of cricket technicalities.

The problem was it didn’t feel right to many outside of the Australian XI celebration. Granted, most of those ‘many’ are of an English persuasion. The home team need to use whatever they can to get back into the series. Playing better would be a start. If there is booing for Australia at Lord’s then Yorkshire cheers and beers will up the decibel counter tenfold.

The chaos was a trigger for Stokes’s incredible innings as every Australian feared a repeat of the England skipper’s Headingley knock four years previously. Before this unedifying but very entertaining sideshow, England were going to get slaughtered for their Bazball tactics. The scoreboard talks louder than entertainment.

That is until there’s a red meat slab of ‘it’s not cricket’ scandal that can take social media hostage. This series has come alive when it had almost flatlined. The ECB will be thankful for small mercies. The Aussies do not know what they have done. Well, they have outplayed their opponents but that doesn’t matter right now.

Sir Geoffrey Boycott says that the tourists should make a public apology while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is getting his nationalistic cricket flak helmet on. There’s an interesting backstory to this fair play furore that authenticates England’s position. When coach Brendon McCullum gave the MCC Spirit of Cricket lecture in 2016, he mentioned one moment that changed his approach to the game.

In a 2006 Test match at Christchurch, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan left his crease to congratulate Kumar Sangakkara on reaching a century. McCullum whipped off the bails and the dismissal was upheld. “Not surprisingly, the incident created controversy and bad feelings,” said the former Kiwi wicketkeeper.

“The Sri Lankans were stunned. Their captain Mahela Jayawardene said at the time: ‘Legally it was run out, the ball was alive, but we play in an age where we talk about the spirit of the game.’ “McCullum recalled. Sangakkara was listening intently in the room, a whole decade on from the incident. The New Zealander took the opportunity to apologise directly.

Whether England will be inspired by their coach’s story remains to be seen. McCullum planted the seed that his team would never have done such a thing due to Stokes’s “tremendous” morals. They certainly won’t be having a beer with the victors either.

Quick-witted Bairstow watchers immediately found footage of the England keeper trying to carry out the same underhand dismissal to Marnus Labuschagne. Was it just a bit of fun? Would England have followed it through with a zealous appeal? That is the question they don’t have to answer.

Lord’s is usually a polite place of English reserve, not the kind of football-like atmosphere that this team needed after they came second best at a raucous Edgbaston. When Bairstow was dismissed, the quiet, deathly hush of the Lord’s Long Room turned into an ugly slanging match. Usman Khawaja had to be restrained when some MCC members mumbled something that wouldn’t be found in their broadsheets. This was not cricket as we know it. Three members have been suspended.

There was, and still is, a danger that the Ashes could have been over and out after two matches. What Careygate has created is a tangible sense of feeling between the two teams. It was only a few days ago that Stuart Broad and David Warner were having a friendly chinwag. The us against them vibes from the English camp is now a weapon.

Only one side in the history of the Ashes has emerged victorious from a 2-0 deficit, but there will be plenty of eyes and ears searing in on the stump microphone at Leeds on Thursday when the third Test starts. England sell themselves as the team that can win 3-2. They have the juices flowing to start the comeback of all comebacks. Whether they can smooth over the rough edges with bat and ball in hand is another matter.