Melbourne: Former Australian captain Mark Taylor has reminded cricketers that if stumping is one of the modes of dismissals permitted by the laws of the game then it's entirely the batsman's responsibility to guard his wicket. England batter Jonny Bairstow's dismissal on the final day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's has brought stumping into focus again with discussion about spirit of the game overriding the rules of cricket.
On the final day of the second Test, Bairstow ducked a slow bouncer from Australia's Cameron Green and walked out of the crease, thinking that the ball was already 'dead'. However, wicketkeeper Alex Carey broke the stumps with a direct throw and third umpire Marais Erasmus adjudged it stumped.
"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 in his column for Sydney Morning Herald.
Read: England regards Bairstow dismissal as against 'the spirit' of cricket; Australia says it's fair play
"So, your job as a batsman is to get back in your crease until the ball is dead." Taylor said the mode of dismissal has been legitimate since the time he has known and played the game, adding that he had "no issues" with what Australia skipper Pat Cummins and his team did at the moment in time. "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.
"It's a legitimate form of dismissal and has been as long as I've known the game of cricket. I've seen many wicketkeepers throwing the ball towards the stumps to try and claim an unsuspecting batsman's wicket." Taylor said just two days before Bairstow's dismissal, the England wicketkeeper-batter had himself had been criticised for a "controversial stumping".
"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." Bairstow's dismissal was almost identical to an episode in 2009 involving then-New Zealand cricketer-turned-England coach Brendon McCullum and England's Paul Collingwood.
Collingwood had wandered from his crease after leaving the last ball of an over and keeper McCullum threw the ball at the stumps during a Champions Trophy game in Johannesburg. "I can remember Rod Marsh throwing the ball towards the stumps off Dennis Lillee's bowling, Ian Healy did the same thing when a batsman was out of his crease, we've seen Jonny Bairstow do it in the latest Test, I've seen footage of England coach Brendon McCullum doing it back in 2009. This sort of stuff has been going on for a long time," added Taylor.
Taylor added he was dismayed with the way the Australian players were treated following the incident. "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. (PTI)
