Cricket can be brutal sometimes. The adrenaline rush of the game can turn you to a person that may not be liked by the viewers present in the stadium or watching you on their Television screens. One such moment came into the life of England wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler and the way he handled it is something that he would regret for the rest of his life.
During the last session on Day Four of the second Test between England and South Africa, Buttler while keeping the stumps said some inappropriate things to South African all-rounder Vernon Philander which baffled everyone, even the commentators that were on-air at that time.
The side led by Joe Root was inching towards a historic win at Cape Town yesterday but Philander was giving a tough fight to the visitors. The incident happened when Philander played a ball towards mid-off only to find Root. The right-hand batsman threw the ball back to Buttler. Philander did not move from his position due to which Buttler was unable to collect the ball.
https://twitter.com/Gillian_Price/status/1214556360853147648
The wicket-keeper, visibly frustrated, crossed the line called Philander a “F***ing K***head.” The South African all-rounder was not pleased with those words and kept on staring at for a while before the next ball was bowled. When everyone thought, it would be over, Buttler went one step ahead and cussed even more.
The social media had a lot to say about the incident and the netizens quickly began to share the video across all the social media platforms.
A lot of users called out Buttler for his rude behavior and the incident also prompted Sky Sports to apologize to its viewers.
Here are some Twitter reactions:
Big Vern made Jos Buttler crack just by staring him out. Buttlers fake nice guy image in the bin. #SAvENG
— Derek Goulding (@derekgoulding) January 7, 2020
https://twitter.com/lue_balo/status/1214553535775301632
https://twitter.com/CricCrazyJohns/status/1214553190881824769
Is this allowed under spirit of cricket? Or is only Ashwin mankading Buttler against spirit of cricket? https://t.co/bqOAQtWpSf
— Karthik Lakshmanan (@lk_karthik) January 7, 2020
But England skipper was adamant that the issue should not be blown out of the proportion. Root noted that the emotions were running quite high at that time and he doesn’t think any of the two players “overstepped” the mark.
“I don’t think it was anything serious,” Root said. ‘It was just two guys playing hard Test cricket. Emotions were running quite high and I don’t think anyone overstepped the mark. You want a bit of spice on the TV anyway, don’t you?” Root said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
The England team won the second Test match by 189 runs and this was the first time in 63 years that the Englishmen have won a Test at Cape Town.
