There was no malice in his action, says Cameron Bancroft on Bairstow headbutt controversy

Australian opener Cameron Bancroft has cleared that there was no malice in the actions of Jonny Bairstow in the headbutt controversy. The news of the Western Australian being attacked by the England wicketkeeper in Perth during one of the tour games broke through on Sunday evening. However, Bairstow himself downplayed the incident and cleared that everything was fine between the two cricketers.

Bancroft played a brilliant innings of 82* on his debut and helped Australia romp home in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane at the Gabba on Monday. But the talks of him being attacked by Bairstow were at the peak during the post-match press conference. But he cleared the air by commenting that both of them enjoyed the evening in Perth and revealed the details of the incident.

He greeted me with the headbutt

Cameron Bancroft revealed the incident and felt it was weird as Jonny Bairstow greeted him with a headbutt. “He greeted me with a headbutt,” Bancroft said. “I was expecting a handshake, it wasn’t the greeting of choice I was expecting. There was certainly no malice in his action and we continued on having a good conversation the rest of the evening. At the time he said sorry. For me personally, it was just really weird. It was so random and I didn’t expect it coming. A handshake or hug I would have expected instead of a headbutt. I let it go and moved on from it,” he said.

Earlier, Bairstow also said that the incident was blown out of the proportion. “First of all, I think it’s blown completely out of proportion. That evening we were let out, there wasn’t any curfew. I was out with friends and some of the WA (Western Australia) guys. We were in the bar having a laugh and an enjoyable night. Cameron and I enjoyed the evening and continued to (enjoy it). There was no malice or intent,” he told reporters.