Trevor Bayliss and Andrew Strauss should look at themselves after Jonny Bairstow heabutt

Headbutt: Bairstow said the incident had been 'blown completely out of proportion' in a statement
Cricket Australia/Getty Images
Tom Collomosse27 November 2017

If England's newcomers did not know what an Ashes campaign in Australia felt like before Monday, they certainly do now.

Not only were they ambushed on the field here at the Gabba, where Australia won by 10 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, they have been outflanked off it, too. It is time for the ECB top brass, in particular Andrew Strauss, to take a close look at the way they treat their players.

It seems clear Jonny Bairstow meant no harm when he bumped into Cameron Bancroft in a Perth bar on October 29, but Australia have seized on the incident to rattle one of England’s best players.

To butt a person you don’t know by way of greeting is bizarre and foolish, regardless of the context. Yet, it is not as daft as the ECB management are for failing to recognise that, perhaps, on the first night of an Ashes tour, and a month after your star all-rounder was filmed involved in a street brawl, it might be a good idea for the players to keep their heads down.

Nobody is suggesting that the England players, who spend far more of the year in hotel rooms than they do at home, should live a life of abstinence. When playing cricket, though, they are expected to read situations quickly and react to them. The same principles apply to Strauss and head coach Trevor Bayliss.

Strauss and Bayliss can be as angry as they like, but they could have nipped this in the bud by imposing a flat curfew for the whole tour.

It may appear excessive, but consider the context: Ben Stokes is not in Australia because he was involved in a confrontation in the early hours of September 25, after a night out in Bristol. Avon and Somerset police are investigating and Stokes is still waiting to learn whether he will be charged, so these are not normal times — and during an Ashes series in Australia, traps are everywhere.

Strauss is a very smart man, who masterminded England’s 3-1 win here in 2010-11, their first victory in a series Down Under since 1987. He does not want to keep the players locked in their rooms, but surely he should have seen the dangers of giving the players free rein so soon after the Stokes incident?

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Now things are likely to change, with a more formal curfew imposed on the players, likely to mean they need to be back in their hotel by midnight. If they disobey it, fines — and possibly more stringent punishments — will follow.

Given Australia captain Steve Smith’s obvious glee at the Bairstow incident, and his belief that Aussie sledging goaded the wicketkeeper-batsman into his rash dismissal on day four, perhaps the horse has already bolted. At the post-match press conference, Bancroft delivered a deadpan account of what happened at The Avenue bar in the Perth suburb of Claremont — and quickly had the audience eating out of his hand. Man-of-the-match Smith was at his side, giggling like a teenager at school who has just seen a teacher fall flat on their face.

Smith knows this incident was something and nothing, but he is not about to waste the chance to make the most of it. England know that, too: when David Warner aimed a punch at Joe Root in a Birmingham bar in June 2013, nobody at the ECB made any attempt to play it down.

The result was that one of Australia’s best players was banned by Cricket Australia for two Ashes Tests, and by the time he rejoined the tour, England were 2-0 up in the series. Job done.

A number of Australia players believe, however, that Warner was outsmarted back then and this is their chance to get even. Their original wish was only to unsettle Bairstow, with the Bancroft incident coming to light because an exchange between Warner and Jimmy Anderson was picked up on the stump microphone.

Once the events of October 29 landed in the public domain, however, Australia were always going to use them as best they could. Their coach, Darren Lehmann, is due to address the media on Tuesday and may well send a few more arrows in England’s direction

Smith said: “We deal with what happens with our team. The ECB and Root and Bayliss can control what happens in the England changing room. That’s really none of our business.” Smith could have said that removing Bairstow from the tour would be an excessive measure and that it was time to forget what had happened and move on, but he is far too cute to do so.

It is about time Strauss and Bayliss were similarly pragmatic. They deny there is a drinking culture among these cricketers, so let them ensure that no more “ammunition” — as Bayliss described it — is given to the opposition.

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