Ashes 2023: Ben Stokes finds humour as Piers Morgan and Sir Geoffrey Boycott rage, make underarm comparison
While Ben Stokes found Aussie jibes humorous, Piers Morgan and Sir Geoffrey Boycott are raging as the Jonny Bairstow dismissal divides the Ashes.
Ben Stokes might have spat the dummy but at least he’s maintained his sense of humour as the rest of the UK commentators, former greats and even the Prime Minister continues to rage about Australia’s Ashes Test win.
While Stokes made a joke at his own expense of a front page of an Australian newspaper that depicted him as a baby, the fury reached the British Prime Minister’s office while UK columnist Piers Morgan penned a column for The Sun that compared the Jonny Bairstow incident to the infamous underarm ball by Trevor Chappell.
Morgan said Chappell’s underarm delivery was also “within the laws of the game” but like the Bairstow dismissal not considered to be “in the spirit of the game”.
“However, that didn’t save Trevor Chappell from becoming one of the most reviled people to ever play sport, because if there’s one thing sports fans hate even more than losing, it’s bad sportsmanship,” Morgan wrote.
That’s definitely not me, since when did I bowl with the new ball https://t.co/24wI5GzohD
— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) July 3, 2023
“I thought of him yesterday when I watched England’s Jonny Bairstow be given out after Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey threw down his stumps as he walked out of his crease to speak to Ben Stokes at the end of an over, believing the ball was dead.
“What Carey did, like Trevor Chappell, was perfectly within the laws of cricket.
But it was also entirely against the spirit of the game.
“Everyone, including every member of the Australian team, knew Bairstow wasn’t trying to gain any advantage.
“Where’s the glory in winning at sport if you abandon honour and integrity?
It’s hard to define exactly what constitutes ‘the spirit of the game’ but most sports fans know when they see it abused.
“It’s why Diego Maradona, genius though he was, will always be thought of as a cheat by England football fans for his ‘Hand of God’ goal against us in the World Cup.”
Morgan also claimed Australian Test great Shane Warne would’ve condemned the dismissal.
“My late, great Aussie friend Shane Warne, who played his cricket hard but fair, had a phrase for this kind of sharp practice,” he wrote.
“He’d have called it ‘pretty ordinary.’
“And for Warnie, there was nothing worse in the world than for sportsmen to show ‘pretty ordinary’ bad sportsmanship.
“He’s right – there isn’t. It’s even worse than losing.”
Former Test great Sir Geoffrey Boycott wrote in The Telegraph that Australia should apologise for the dismissal so the series and fans can move on.
“Australia need to have a think about what they did and make a fulsome public apology. That way it will redress the situation and everyone can then move on,” Boycott wrote.
“Australia have now had time to think about what happened. We all make mistakes in the heat of the moment. People will think better of the Australians if they put their hands up and say ‘we got it wrong’. That is the way to go. Let’s see over the next few days if they are man enough to do that.”
Originally published as Ashes 2023: Ben Stokes finds humour as Piers Morgan and Sir Geoffrey Boycott rage, make underarm comparison
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