Sophie Ecclestone: Alyssa Healy ‘more of a pro’ than Alex Carey after Jonny Bairstow controversy

Sophie Ecclestone claims Australia women’s wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy is “more of a pro” and believes she would not do something similar to the controversial Jonny Bairstow wicket at Lord’s.

The dismissal from Alex Carey has sparked controversy, and even been weighed in on by both the British and the Australian prime ministers.

Carey threw down the stumps after Bairstow ducked the final ball of the over and set off to talk to partner Ben Stokes in the apparent belief the over had ended.

Debates have been sparked over the spirit of cricket, and Marylebone Cricket Club members suspended over their actions while Australia were making their way back into the dressing room at lunch on the final day of the Lord’s Test.

But Ecclestone believes the controversy, or the style of wicket, will not spill over into the women’s game.

“To be honest I wasn’t really watching it. I haven’t had too much interest in that,” the England spinner said ahead of the second women’s Ashes T20 at The Oval on Wednesday.

“Jonny is obviously a bit upset about it.

“If Alyssa did that… I think she’s more of a pro to not do that so we need to just move on from it now.”

England were involved in a controversy of their own in September 2022, when Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers again, sparking similar debates, although not to the same extent.

“Obviously it’s not ideal, personally I don’t want to win games like that,” Ecclestone said when speaking about the events last year.

“Obviously we don’t want it to happen again but I think on both sides we’d like to think we’re more professional than to do that ourselves.”

After losing the Test match in the multi-format series, (which is worth four points) and the first T20, England have to win all of their matches to prevent Australia retaining the Ashes, which they could do with victroy on Wednesday.

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Despite the results however, it has been a ground-breaking series, with over 19,000 in attendance for the T20 at Edgbaston on Saturday.

“They’ve been amazing. To see so many kids in the crowd and so many people watching our games has been amazing.

“It’s the loudest crowd I’ve ever had in the UK. So hopefully it continues this week at the Oval and Lord’s and I’m just so excited to get out there and play cricket in front of them,” Ecclestone said.

“I think it’s so exciting to play in front of all these crowds. I think playing at the grounds that we are on Saturday nights, it’s amazing to think what we’ve got going on and it makes me really excited to play cricket.

“So I think having these crowds at these grounds, we’re really excited to just go and entertain them and hopefully inspire the next generation to play cricket.”