Before turning on his heel and walking out, Hastings asked his superior officer: "When did we stop caring about honesty and integrity?"

It is a phrase that has resonated around social media over the weekend - some have seen it as a finely-crafted barb from the politically switched-on creator and writer of the series, Jed Mercurio.

I personally am struggling to think of any contemporary political figures who might have prompted Mercurio to such artistic licence but perhaps you will have your own ideas.

The events of the weekend have also pointed up the significance of this phrase in a sporting context - to be precise, cricket’s County Championship match between Hampshire and Leicestershire.

During Saturday’s play the Leicestershire batsman Hassan Azad was given out after being stumped by Hampshire wicketkeeper Lewis McManus.

It seemed at first as if the wicketkeeper was appealing for caught behind but the square leg umpire signalled that Azad had been stumped.

Closer inspection of the moment revealed that McManus had taken the ball delivered by bowler Liam Dawson in his right hand before removing the bails with his left.

Law 29.1.1.5 states that the wicket can be fairly put down "by a fielder with his/her hand or arm, providing that the ball is held in the hand or hands so used, or in the hand of the arm so used."

The apparently triumphant wicketkeeper was congratulated by his team-mates as Azad walked - but it was not long before Leicestershire’s head coach Paul Nixon raised the incident with match referee Stuart Cummings, and a formal complaint was then lodged with the England and Wales Cricket Board, whose response is awaited with widespread interest.

"We have expressed our very strong views on this shocking incident to the match referee and we trust that an extremely strong stance will be taken to keep the integrity of our game," Nixon told Wisden.

It seemed at first as if the wicketkeeper was appealing for caught behind but the square leg umpire signalled that Azad had been stumped.

The irony of the phrase "it’s just not cricket" has reverberated down the years as a game that has been perceived as a yardstick for fair play has produced as many incidents of gamesmanship and, yes, cheating, as…well, any other sport.

But while we’re on the subject of cricket. In January, Australia’s former captain Steve Smith - who made a tearful appearance in a media conference in 2018 after receiving a year’s ban for his part as captain in the sandpaper ball-tampering scandal during the Test series in South Africa - re-emerged in the bad books after behaviour in a match against India that was just not cricket.

Video showed Smith walking over to the crease at the end of an over and scuffing at the guard marked by batsman Rishabh Pant, who, without realising how it had happened, had to re-mark with the help of an umpire.

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag was among those who shared the clip on Twitter, remarking: "Tried all tricks including Steve Smith trying to remove Pant's batting guard marks from the crease."

The clip received almost one million views and gathered more than 123,000 likes - which in this case presumably meant the opposite.

The former England captain Michael Vaughan tweeted: "This is very very poor from Steve Smith!!"

Let’s at this point recall one other incident. In the Test before Australia’s sandpapering zeal became known, South Africa’s fast bowler Kagiso Rabada was suspended for the following Test after making physical contact with Smith - whose form had dipped - having dismissed him. Also not cricket. And Smith was annoyed later to hear that the punishment had been successfully appealed against.

Had Smith played in the same era as England’s W.G. Grace he would certainly have been very annoyed too.

The surgeon - and all-rounder - whose abilities made him a byword for the game in the late 19^th century might have been invented to vex Australians.

A report in an Australian paper that appeared in 1874, soon after the great figure had taken part in an England tour, had this to say about him: "We in Australia did not take kindly to WG. For so big a man, he is surprisingly tenacious on small points."

In a match against Surrey at Clifton in 1878 the ball reportedly lodged in Grace’s shirt and he simply began making runs, stopping only at the eventual intervention of several fielders. He claimed afterwards that he would have been out - for handling the ball - had he tried to remove it.

Another celebrated example of Gracemanship occurred when he once refused to leave the crease after being given out, apparently responding to the man with the raised finger: "They’ve come to see me bat, not you umpire."

Perhaps Azad should try that line next time he’s stumped.

Dodgy behaviour - label it as you will - is sure to continue in cricket, just as it is in any other sport you could name involving human beings.

But given the hoo-hah that inevitably follows, you can only conclude that no one has stopped caring about honesty and integrity. At least until one of their boys steps out of line…