Jonny Bairstow was only eight-years-old when one day after finishing his football training with the Leeds United juniors he returned home with his mother Janet and sister Becky to find his father David having committed suicide.
The death of the former England cricketer and Headingley legend 20 years ago is being marked with the release of Jonny’s book titled ‘A Clear Blue Sky’, in which the current England wicketkeeper-batsman discusses at length about how the death of his father affected the family.
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According to The Daily Mail, the eight-year-old Jonny, who had all of a sudden become the ‘man of the family’, turned to his mother and said, “We’re going to be all right you know.”
Janet was struggling with cancer when David took his life and the Bairstows kept looking to find an answer as to why he did so. “There was no real reason to do it now to be honest. We thought about it for a while, didn’t we, and stewed over whether it was right or wrong,” says Jonny.
{{/usCountry}}Janet was struggling with cancer when David took his life and the Bairstows kept looking to find an answer as to why he did so. “There was no real reason to do it now to be honest. We thought about it for a while, didn’t we, and stewed over whether it was right or wrong,” says Jonny.
{{/usCountry}}David Bairstow played four Tests and 21 ODIs for England, and an overall 459 first-class matches and 429 List A games.
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“I don’t think I will ever find out why it happened and I think it’s the same with anybody who does something like that. You can punish yourself for all time but I don’t think you ever truly know. You can’t look back. You have to look forward,” says Janet.
Jonny says, “No one knows why he did it and no one ever will. Whether it be mum, me, Becky, Andrew (David’s son from his first marriage) or anyone else. No one will ever know why. There’s no point questioning it every single day because if you do that it will bring you down.”
The book will have Jonny talking about his father at the beginning, and the family hopes that it only inspires people.