Rookie follows test effort with Bairstow headbutt banter

Who said there were no characters left in Australia’s cricket team?

A cult hero was born yesterday at the Gabba as Cameron Bancroft — fresh from a maiden test half-century and hitting the winning runs in the Ashes opener — took a gaggle of journalists through the ins and outs of the “friendly” headbutt he received from Jonny Bairstow.

Few people knew anything about Bancroft before his selection as Australia’s 451st test cricketer. Now, few people will forget the 25-year-old after the way he fielded questions about the bizarre way he was greeted by the English wicketkeeper, his flummoxed reaction and the precise location of the hit.

Bancroft was even asked to rate the headbutt out of 10 after he revealed he had the “heaviest head” in West Australian cricket.

“It’s been measured. There’s an actual measurement for it,” Bancroft said.

It all left captain Steve Smith, who sat by his side for what will surely go down one of the most peculiar press conferences in test history, in stitches.

It was the first time Smith, whose unbeaten 141 was key to Australia’s victory, had lost his composure in five days.

“Goodness. laughed.

At Perth’s Avenue Bar, West Australian players were celebrating their Sheffield Shield win over Tasmania when the England team strolled in.

“I remember it very clearly,” Bancroft said. “It was very friendly, mingling the whole night. Obviously some of our players knew the English players,” he said. “As the night pro- I can’t talk,” Smith gressed 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.

“It wasn’t the greeting of choice I was expecting. A handshake or a hug or something like that would have been something that I probably would have expected more than a headbutt, but there was certainly nothing malicious about his action.

“I don’t know Jonny Bairstow but he says hello to people very differently to most others.”

Bancroft said it was “random” but 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’,” he said. “And that was it.

“Headbutts clash with heads. When he made the decision to do that, it meant our heads collided.”

Asked if it was how he envisaged his first post-match press conference as a test player would go, he said: “Not really, no. But it’s all good humour, isn’t it. I’ll look back on this one day and it’ll be a dot in my life.”

England Cricket Board chief Andrew Strauss played down the incident, describing it as “playfulness” that had been “blown out of proportion”.

The ECB investigated the alcohol-

I don’t know Jonny Bairstow but he says hello to people very differently to most others. Cameron Bancroft

fuelled incident that unfolded almost a month ago after Australian players were heard sledging Bairstow about it in the first test. Australian vicecaptain David Warner could be heard saying “you shouldn’t headbutt our mates” before umpire Marais Erasmus intervened. England team insiders claimed the keeper was a “rugby man” and part of their culture was an odd habit of bumping heads after someone buys them a drink.

Either way, former England great Ian Botham wondered why Australia were bringing it up now.

Former Australian test bowler Brendon Julian claimed the Australians blurted it out over the stump mics so the story would be leaked. “... they’re on top... and are thinking ‘well let’s just do something else to just sort of niggle away’,” he said.