England and Australia are completely divided over Jonny Bairstow's controversial dismissal at Lord's in the ongoing Ashes series. Laws of cricket vs Spirit of Cricket debate continues to grow and it goes without saying which set of former cricketers are taking whose side. Former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott was furious with the Aussie team demanding a public apology from them and now former Australia cricketer Mark Taylor has joined the bandwagon giving his take on the controversy.
For the unversed, Bairstow had wandered off the crease after ducking underneath a delivery from Cameron Green and wicketkeeper Alex Carey sensed an opportunity to stump him. The matter was taken to the third umpire who adjudged the batter out much to the disappointment of England team and crowd. Since then there has been a furore among English supporters. But Taylor has backed the Australian team and skipper Pat Cummins for their actions.
Cummins not withdrawing his appeal has also not gone down well with many but Mark Taylor has no issues with the dismissal. "The batsmen have to remember there are 10 ways to get out in Test cricket. One of them is by being stumped, and it doesn't say in the laws it has to be off a slow bowler. If you're going to wander out of your crease doing whatever you want to do, be mindful that you can be stumped," Taylor wrote in his column for Sydney Morning Herald.
"I've got no issue at all with what Pat Cummins and the Australian team did during the last day of the Lord's Test when they stumped Jonny Bairstow. Jonny Bairstow found himself on the receiving end of a controversial stumping, but two days earlier tried to pull one off himself -- the incident drawing parallels with England head coach Brendon McCullum when he stumped Paul Collingwood," Taylor further wrote.
After the incident, there was a controversy in the Lord's Long Room as well where the MCC members had a lot of things to say to the Australians, especially Usman Khawaja. MCC has already taken action on three members suspending them with immediate effect. Mark Taylor expressed his disappointment over the incident but lauded the MCC CEO for taking quick action.
"I'm disappointed with the way the Australian players were treated after completing this entirely legitimate dismissal, particularly in the Long Room (at Lord's).
I will congratulate Guy Lavender, CEO of the MCC, for getting onto it reasonably quickly, calming down the MCC members and suspending three of them. However, I think that's the minimum amount they need to do at this stage," Taylor further added.
