Flem’s Verdict: Is spirit of cricket needed? It gives teams grey areas to exploit instead of accepting umpire's decision

Do we really need the concept of the spirit of cricket? It just seems to bring more grey areas into the game. 

I can’t believe how massive the fall-out has been after the Lord’s Test after Alex Carey stumped Jonny Bairstow in a legitimate way. 

The reaction has been over the top even though pretty much every former England cricketer I’ve heard from over the past few days has agreed with what I wrote after the Test that Bairstow was caught napping by a smart piece of play from Carey. 

All these past behaviours from the England coach, Brendon McCullum, and some of their players, including Bairstow while keeping himself, are coming back to haunt them.

And I think Pat Cummins has shown true leadership with his response to it all. He’s unflappable and has led by example and that’s kept the rest of the team calm while all this nonsense has been raging on around them.

(Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)

The spirit of cricket debate always seems to come up when someone doesn’t like a decision that’s gone against them in a contentious incident like this one, rather than accepting the umpire’s decision. 

Australia did that the first time around on day four when Mitchell Starc’s catch was overruled by the third umpire but England did the opposite the following day when Bairstow was given out.

The spirit of cricket should be the same as all elite sport in that you play hard but fair – do we need this extra layer on top of the laws of the game which can give people a reason to protest even though no rule has been broken. 

Malcolm Knox wrote a brilliant book a few years back called Never a Gentleman’s Game about the scandals that went on when cricket first started centuries ago.

The spirit of cricket certainly wasn’t an issue when Dr WG Grace was putting the stumps back in the ground while telling bowlers the crowd had paid good money to watch him bat in the 1800s or when Douglas Jardine unleashed his Bodyline tactics against Australia in England’s 1932-33 Ashes tour.

We grew up being told that English batters were gentlemanly because they would walk before the umpires would give them out, however in Knox’s book he wrote that those players would go for the obvious ones but stay at the crease if they just feathered one through that the umpire didn’t hear.

The letter of the law is there to be adjudicated upon by the umpires – there shouldn’t need to be a spirit of cricket code for players to know that.

It looks like the English team is trying to put up a smokescreen because everyone’s talking about that incident rather than the fact that they’re 2-0 down in the series and their Bazball tactics have contributed heavily to that scoreline. 

Australia have been counterpunching, playing their style and not getting put off their game, and it’s worked in both Tests so far. 

There were times when they’ve been rattled like when Ben Stokes was going nuts with the bat on day five at Lord’s but they’ve held their nerve.

Stokes’ magnificent knock of 155, one of the best Test innings of all time, is what people should be talking about but it’s getting 2% of the coverage compared to a stumping that was just out. 

McCullum is trying to create a siege mentality and that’s what you do when you can’t control what’s happening on the field.

I think England have got plenty of problems with their team they need to address.

They’ve made a song and dance about how they don’t train as hard in the Bazball era but I think that’s hurting them. They’ve looked sloppy in the one-percenters that can be so vital.

Their ground fielding has been much worse than the Australians, they’ve dropped more catches, let in more byes, bowled more no-balls and it all adds up, particularly when it means the difference between taking a wicket and giving an opposition batter a life. 

Pat Cummins and Alex Carey of Australia celebrate the wicket of Jonny Bairstow. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Image

That can be the difference between being up 2-0 or being two down. They’re controllable things for the most part that they’re getting wrong.

I’ve heard Nathan Lyon has handed the duty of leading the team song to Carey while he’s out with his torn calf. What an honour and he couldn’t have made a better choice after all the carry-on that’s been happening. 

Very few Australians have been given that privilege from Rod Marsh down to David Boon, Ian Healy and Mike Hussey, and Carey deserves it. Hopefully he’s singing it loudly for the next three Tests.

Todd Murphy replacing Lyon in the spin department for Thursday’s third Test at Leeds will be interesting because England will go after him.

But everyone who saw him on tour in India was impressed with how he went about his work so he won’t mind it if the Poms try to blast him out of the attack because it’ll open up wicket-taking opportunities.

The pitch at Headingley appears to be very green but it also looked that way at Lord’s and it turned out to have very little life in it.

Ben Stokes speaks to the umpires after Jonny Bairstow was stumped. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Both teams would benefit if there’s a bit of swing and seam but if this surface is similar to the second Test then we’ll be seeing Bouncerball again with a lot of short-pitched deliveries. 

Fans were getting frustrated with the tactics but when the pitch isn’t offering any sideways movement, your last resort is to see if you can get variation from up and down bounce.

The horizontal bat shots present more risk to getting out and apart from Stokes and to a lesser extent, Ben Duckett, the batters couldn’t handle it.

There’s a simple solution and that’s to go back to traditional English wickets which encourage bowlers to pitch the ball up.

Bazball is supposed to be about providing entertainment but they need flat pitches to do that and that’s prompting teams to use these negative tactics, which is taking the fun out of the spectacle. It’s all very counter-productive.

However the pitch plays, the Aussies look too strong again and it looks like the Ashes urn could be retained with two Tests to spare.