Former England pacer Stuart Broad revisited the second Test against Australia in the recent Ashes 2023 series which was played at the Lord’s and recalled his interaction with Pat Cummins after the controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow.
The controversial moment occurred when Bairstow had strayed out of the crease thinking the ball was dead but Alex Carey threw the ball from behind the wickets to run him out.
This incident sparked a lot of debate in the Ashes. While Australia eventually won the second Test at Lord's, their win was challenged briefly by Ben Stokes, who batted an incredible century, while Broad played the hostile figure on the pitch.
Broad reveals that he couldn't control his temper in the high-stakes Ashes Test and burst out at Cummins, calling him an absolute disgrace.
"As I'm walking out to bat at Lord's and there's boos going at the Aussies, the captain Pat Cummins is coming on to bowl so he's walking towards me at the end of his mark. And I just looked at him and said, 'You're an absolute disgrace'. "He said, 'Oh yeah, you're hardly an upkeep of the spirit of cricket,” Broad said on the Up Front podcast.
Cummins' statement was a direct allusion to a memorable incident during the 2013 Ashes series, in which Stuart Broad refused to walk despite obviously edging the ball. This judgement resulted in him being ruled "not out" by the umpire, and it became a source of debate and controversy in the cricket world.
"So that upset me a bit. Then the next 10 minutes became me being very facetious and shouting in every time, which I had huge regrets about that night. I was hugely embarrassed about it but I had no real control over what I was doing,” Broad added.
