Brendon McCullum brands Steven Smith 'immature' over the controversial dismissal of Ben Stokes
New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum has blasted his Australian counterpart Steven Smith for his immaturity in handling the controversial dismissal of Be Stokes, Fox Sports reports. The wicketkeeper-batsman said that Smith should have withdrawn the appeal and added that his side would not have appealed at all to begin with.
English all-rounder Ben Stokes was controversially given out ‘obstructing the field’ after he struck his hand out at Mitchell Starc’s throw aimed at the stumps during the 2nd ODI between England and Australia at Lord’s. With the 26-year-old out of his crease, the Australians appealed and the third umpire ruled in favour of the visitors.
The incident has led to bad blood between the arch rivals with Smith and former skipper George Bailey defending the Australian side despite the majority of the cricket world commenting that Stokes was just taking evasive action.
Smith is still in his early days as skipper of the Australian team but McCullum believes that the 26-year-old might regret the decision in the future.
“Don’t get me wrong: winning is important. But the longer you play this game the more you realise that some things are too valuable to spoil. By not withdrawing the appeal, Smith showed his immaturity. He may live to regret it,” McCullum said.
England skipper Eoin Morgan had stated in the aftermath of the incident on Saturday that he would have recalled the batsmen had he been in Smith’s shoes and questioned the sportsmanship of the Australian side. McCullum supported the view by stating that Smith chose the wrong way by going ahead with the appeal.
“It’s probably too early in Steve Smith’s captaincy career to appreciate this but one day he’ll look back at the Ben Stokes dismissal at Lord’s on Saturday and realise he missed a great opportunity to strike a blow for the spirit of cricket,” McCullum said. “We’ve all done things on the field that we regret later. I know I certainly have. But it was disappointing that Smith had a chance to make a statement about the way he wants his side to play the game and chose to go the other way.”
The Kiwi skipper went on to claim that Smith’s predecessor Michael Clarke would have done otherwise.
““I do wonder how Michael Clarke would have handled the situation had he still been in charge. I’m pretty sure he’d have withdrawn the appeal. I’m also pretty sure that Eoin Morgan would have done so, too,” he wrote.
The trans-Tasmanian rivals are set to square off against each other later this year and McCullum stated that his side would never do the same should such an incident repeat in the future.
“As for the current New Zealand side, I reckon none of us would have appealed in the first place,” he said. “I’m not trying to set us up as being holier-than-thou. I just know how much we’ve discussed the way we want to play the game. Something would have told us that appealing for obstructing the field in those circumstances wasn’t right.”