Bancroft laughs away Bairstow headbutt
At the end of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane on Monday, the English contingent opted to play down the Jonny Bairstow-Cameron Bancroft headbutt incident. But after hitting the winning runs to help Australia go 1-0 ahead, Bancroft regaled the media corps with a blow by blow account of the episode.
The incident reportedly took place early in the tour, during England’s warm-up game against a Western Australia XI, when the visiting Englishmen met up with some of the local players in Perth.
“I remember it very clearly. We just won a (Sheffield) Shield game for WA and one of our values is to celebrate success. We were as a team and a group. That coincided with the English team arriving in Perth for the tour game,” recalled Bancroft, who scored five and 82 not out on debut in Australia’s 10-wicket win.
“As the night progressed, it was great to be able to meet some of those guys. I got into a very amicable conversation with Jonny and yeah, he just greeted me with a headbutt kind of thing. I was expecting a handshake... It wasn't the greeting of choice I was expecting. That was the way that I took it. There was certainly no malice in his actions and we continued on having very good conversations for the rest of the evening.”
Bancroft’s retelling of the story sent Steve Smith, the Australia captain sitting by the opening batsman’s side at the press conference, into a fit of giggles, but Bancroft went on poker-faced: “At the time, he (Bairstow) said sorry. For me, it was just really weird. It was so random. I didn't expect it coming. A handshake or a hug is something I would have expected more than a headbutt. But as I said, there was nothing malicious about his actions. I don't know Jonny Bairstow but he says hello to people very differently from most others. As I said, we got along for the rest of the night quite well. We moved on from it. It was fine.”
Bancroft joked: “No, it didn't knock me over. I've actually got the heaviest head in the West Australian squad. There's an actual measurement for it. So I took the blow quite well and moved on from it. It was a good hit. Play on.
“He connected with my head, with a force that would make me sort of think ‘wow, that's a bit weird’.”
Prior to the Bancroft interaction, the English contingent fronted the media with both Joe Root, the captain, and Trevor Bayliss, the coach, playing the incident down.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Sunday, soon after the news surfaced, that it would look into the matter. But on Sunday, Root and Bayliss called the episode a minor one, adding that the wicketkeeper-batsman would not face disciplinary action.
Bairstow himself made a short statement, saying, “I think it's been blown out of all proportion. There was no intent or malice about anything during the evening. And as you saw out there today, there is no animosity between myself or Cameron any of the other Australian players.”
Root stood by his teammate. “A mountain has been made out of a molehill, as far as that's concerned,” he said. “We've just got to move one and concentrate on our cricket. We've prepared very well in the warm up games, played three days excellent cricket (in the first Test), it's just about making sure that's five days next week.”
Bayliss, meanwhile, responded with “that's a good question” when asked what exactly had transpired that night at the Perth hotel. “I think there was some contact, but obviously not a headbutt. There's a big difference,” said Bayliss.
