‘Like Emburey, Carey was within rules’

Mumbai: Although he didn’t watch the action on a riveting fifth day of the second Ashes Test, the highly controversial stumping of England’s wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow by his Australian counterpart Alex Carey saw former India captain and opener Kris Srikkanth’s inbox flooded with messages from many of his friends. It took India’s 1983 World Cup winner back by 41 years, when a similar incident ruined his Test debut, against England at Bombay (now Mumbai) in November 1981. “I don’t want to comment on the Bairstow incident as I didn’t watch it. In my case, it was my debut Test. Batting on 13, I defended the ball towards gully, where John Emburey (ex-England off-spinner) was fielding. Now, I had this bad habit of sauntering outside the crease after playing the ball. In a fantastic piece of fielding, Emburey, who was initially about to throw the ball to the covers or the bowler, I think it was Bob Willis, picked up the ball and threw down the stumps (at the striker’s end), and I was stranded outside my crease. Honestly speaking, I really looked like a fool. At the end of the day, it was my fault. I don’t think the question of the spirit of the game came there.,” Srikkanth recalled while speaking to TOI. “Even today, I feel it was my mistake, I was out. Emburey was within the rules. Similarly, it seems that Carey was within the rules. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been out. You have given an opportunity to the opposition and they’ve grabbed it,” he added. For the record, Srikkanth bounced back after scoring 0 & 13 in his debut Test by scoring 65 and sharing a 102-run opening stand with Sunil Gavaskar in the second Test of that series at Bangalore. “What must’ve happened is that the Aussies must’ve watched Bairstow leave his crease quite regularly for quite a few balls. That’s my assumption. This must’ve been a planned dismissal. I think Australia were desperate for a wicket,” Srikkanth analysed. For former India batsman Mohammed Kaif, Bairstow’s dismissal was “fair and square” and “there was no debate around it”. “There’s no question of ‘spirit of cricket’ here. Bairstow was out of his crease and was thus out. He had been doing it a few times and Carey was aware of that. As a batsman, you have to be aware that you have to be in the crease if the ball goes to the keeper. It’s something that I’ve seen from my club cricket days. A lot of times in the Ranji Trophy, you bat out of your crease to cut the swing and seam on a seaming track. However, you quickly go back into your crease once the ball reaches the keeper. If you aren’t, you will be in danger of being run out by the ‘keeper. It has been happening from time immemorial. If you notice (former India captain) Virat Kohli bat — he stays out of his crease — but quickly returns behind the line the moment the ball goes behind the stumps,” Kaif told this paper. “I can understand that things are different when you talk about the run out at the non-striker’s end. That mode of dismissal people still have a problem digesting. The bowler doesn’t even complete his action, his eyes are on the non-striker.”
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