- By Vishal Pushkar
- Wed, 05 Jul 2023 03:19 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
JE Sports Desk: Australian captain Pat Cummins has been at the forefront of criticisms from current and former players in regards to 'Spirit of the game' episode which happened during the 2nd Ashes test at Lord's. Ahead of the 3rd test at Headingly, Cummins has termed it as a 'non-event' and rather called it 'plain and simple stumping'.
It is noteworthy that a throw from Australian wicket-keeper Alex Carey dislodged Jonny Bairstow's bails while he is out of the popping crease assuming the ball was dead. However, Australians went and appealed and he was given out by the umpire.
"I don't think a conversation about the spirit of cricket even comes into a dismissal like that. It was plain and simple a stumping," the Australian captain said. "For what I think is a pretty common non-event, it does seem like everyone has a pretty strong opinion about it. I don't think there's any discussion; it's out. If the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't be looking at the opposition, I'd probably be thinking about our own batter, and would be thinking it's pretty silly."
"I know what our team does, and that's why we concentrate on ourselves. When we haven't been playing up to scratch, we look pretty deeply at what we are doing, and try to make amends. We don't apportion blame to conditions or opposition or anything else going on," Cummins added.
"I'm really proud of how our boys have conducted themselves on this tour, especially on that day five. [I] thought the way they maintained respect for the opposition, the umpires and the crowd, their dignity was first-class," Cummins said.
Cummins also agreed to disagree with Brendon McCullum on the issue, who reckoned the relations between the two sides would not be the same for the rest of the series and that he wouldn't have post-match beers with the Aussies.
"I've got no problems at all with Baz," Cummins said. "I know how much he loves a beer, so that was surprising. Maybe we just see this one differently, which is totally fine."
"People pay for their tickets, they can turn up... whilst I hope that I would never go to a sporting event and try to abuse players, which some people do. I'm sure it'll be a pretty fiery week from the crowd. But again, we're on the field. I think in Australia, we're as guilty as anyone a lot of the time. So I think it's reality, to be honest.
"If you're going to play professional sport, unfortunately, that's one of the things that you're going to have to deal with. It's nothing new. I think you could talk about it till the cows come home, but I doubt it's going to make much of a difference," Cummins added.