"He's not lived the life of an angel" - Ricky Ponting on Stuart Broad questioning whether Australia played in the spirit of the game
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has hit back at England seamer Stuart Broad for criticizing Pat Cummins and Co. for stumping Jonny Bairstow on Day 5 of the Lord's Test. The Tasmanian stated that England doesn't have a clean record to point fingers at Australia.
In his column for the Daily Mail, Broad condemned the Aussie as not one player stood up against the controversial dismissal of Bairstow. The third umpire gave the Yorkshire batter out when Alex Carey hit the stumps as Bairstow walked out of the crease after ducking a delivery from Cameron Green.
Speaking in an episode of the ICC Review, Ponting claimed that Broad has not been a saint on the field and said:
"Stuart Broad has also got a pretty short memory. He's not lived the life of an angel every time he's walked onto the cricket field either. If you look at some of the stuff that he was carrying on with (on Day 5) on the field, I think you'd probably suggest that that was outside the spirit of cricket as well."
Ponting added:
"It's a fine line that a lot of these players want to tread when they start talking about things like that being in the spirit of cricket. They want to make sure that they've got a pretty squeaky clean record themselves and I'd suggest most guys that have actually played international cricket haven't got squeaky clean records, that's for sure."
The incident triggered a backlash among the fans and members at Lord's. The likes of Usman Khawaja and David Warner also had heated exchanges with a few members while heading for lunch.
"I'm not sure it's all he'll be remembered for" - Ricky Ponting on Alex Carey
While Broad has warned that Carey will always be remembered for the dismissal, Ponting disagreed as the umpire made the decision. He said:
"I'm not sure it's all he'll be remembered for. At the end of the day, it wasn't Carey's decision either (to press on with the appeal). It was his decision to throw the ball. He's not the umpire and he's not the one that had the chance to overturn the decision. So I don't understand where a lot of this negativity can come back onto Carey."
Australia won by 43 runs at Lord's to go 2-0 up in the five-Test series. England and Australia will now meet in the third Test at Headingley, which starts on July 6.