16 instances where cricket matches were stopped for unusual reasons

Take a look at 16 instances when cricket matches were halted under extraordinary circumstances.

The Somerset vs Surrey match at The Oval had a delayed start due to snowfall. Abhishek Mukherjee recollects 16 instances when cricket matches were halted under extraordinary circumstances.

1. More snow: The Oval match between Somerset and Surrey was not the first major match to be halted by snow. Buxton, a small spa town in Derbyshire, was hosting a county championship match in 1975. Frank Hayes and both Lloyds (Clive and David) thrashed the locals all over, and Lancashire declared on 477 for 5 on Day One. Derbyshire were 25 for 2 by stumps. It was an extremely hot day that saw shirtless spectators and a surge of ice-cream sales at the ground.

The next day, a Sunday, was the rest day. Then came a hailstorm, followed by heavy snow. When Dickie Bird and Dusty Rhodes went out for an inspection the morning after, they found snow up to their boots. Clive Lloyd, not used to snow back in his homeland, immediately responded by throwing a snowball at Farokh Engineer, as The Telegraph reported.

Play was obviously called off for the day. It did not matter, for the two Peters — Lever and Lee — bowled out Derbyshire for 42 and 87 the next day.

2. Sunlight: Trust Bird to be a part of this again. The 1995 Old Trafford Test started off on an unexpected high for England, reducing West Indies to 94 for 4 before Brian Lara went on rampage.

Before the big stoppage, Bird had halted the play in the morning, dropping the marbles he used to count the number of balls in the over. Michael Atherton had a hilarious take: “Play was halted momentarily while Dickie scrambled around on his hands and knees looking for his counters. ‘I’ve lost me marbles! I’ve lost me marbles! He cried. Most of us thought he had lost his marbles a long time ago.”

Fifteen minutes before tea, however, sunlight reflected off an adjacent greenhouse. Bird, in consultation with Cyril Mitchley, concluded that the light was too strong for the match to go on. An early tea was taken.

Interestingly, early tea was taken fifteen minutes before tea on Day Two as well, due to rain. Play was called off five minutes before stumps, too, due to bad light.

3. Heat: Heat at Derby? Yes. The Friends Provident Trophy semi-final, 2007, between Derbyshire and Yorkshire was had to be halted for extreme heat and sunshine. Chasing 254 in a day-night match, the Derbyshire batsmen complained that they had problems watching the white ball in the sunshine. Play was held up for 45 minutes. Yorkshire eventually won on Duckworth-Lewis method.

4. Cold: With heat stopping play, could cold have been far away? The 1965 Edgbaston Test between England and New Zealand witnessed extreme cold weather, and Warwickshire CCC were intelligent enough to serve coffee during play twice that day. However, play was not exactly halted.

There was no such luck at Fenner’s during the opening match of the 1981 season. Essex dominated the first two days, securing a lead of 94 and reducing Cambridge to 82 for 4. The temperature kept dropping steadily after play resumed on Day Three, and thanks to a gritty effort from Derek Pringle, Cambridge went past the danger zone.

Then, at 204 for 6, a drizzle started, which made things impossible to go on despite multiple layers of sweaters. Umpires Don Oslear and Nigel Plews had no option but to call the match off. “The umpires called a halt, considering it unreasonable and dangerous to continue because of the extreme cold,” reported Wisden.

5. Desert-storm: The most iconic of interruptions happened when they were dancing down in the aisles in Sharjah. The storm in the Emirates desert held up play for 15 minutes as the number of overs in the Indian innings was reduced from 50 to 46. Then followed another storm — of the kind the world has rarely seen — from the bat of Sachin Tendulkar.

6. Death: A king: Going into the last Test at Chepauk, England were leading the 1951-52 series in India 1-0. They scored 224 for 5 at stumps on Day One. By the time they left the ground, the news had reached Madras: King George VI had died of coronary thrombosis.

The second day was immediately rescheduled as a rest day. The Test is significant, for it was India’s first Test win.

7. Death: A Prime Minister: Years later, India toured Pakistan in 1984-85. The Sialkot ODI was crucial for Mohinder Amarnath, for he was leading India for the only time in his career. India reached 210 for 3 in 40 overs when news of Indira Gandhi’s assassination reached Pakistan.  The tour was called off with immediate effect.

8. Death: A cricketer: Phillip Hughes’ untimely demise in 2014 had shocked the cricket fraternity into mourning. The world remembered him in unison by putting their bats out and sharing on social media. The second day’s play of the Sharjah Test between Pakistan and New Zealand was called off instantly, though an extra day was added.

9. Calamari: In a 1994-95 Castle Cup match, Daryll Cullinan hit Roger Telemachus for a six, and the ball landed in a pan of fried calamari. It took ten minutes for the ball to cool down, but even then Telemachus could not grip the greasy ball. ‘Fried calamari stopped play,’ reported Wisden.

10. Gravy: Muttiah Muralitharan was bowling brilliantly at Old Trafford in a County Championship match in 2007. Martin van Jaarsveld and Darren Stevens were trying to make a match out of it as they went to lunch on the last day.

Then, as play began after lunch, a commotion started, and two fire-engines rushed to the ground, trying to put out the fire in the dressing-room. It was almost unreal, given that there was rain prediction.

Thanks to a brand of carelessness one associates with amateur cooks, a pot of gravy (not the famous West Indies supporter) had surpassed all stages of cooking before and was reduced to ashes. Finally, after being burned to oblivion, it was reduced to smoke, which had set off the fire-alarm.

11. Drain: A perfect example of a match going up the drain, this: it was one of the few respites England had in The Summer of Four Captains, in 1988. The Headingley Test started on time, and Curtly Ambrose sent down four balls to Graham Gooch. Then Ambrose stopped midway during his run-up, and summoned Bird (who seemed to have specialised in this): water was oozing out of the ground.

Investigation revealed a burst drain. It took some repairing and sawdust to get things rolling.

12. Toy: Hampshire and South Wills were playing at Rose Bowl Nursery Ground, when a spectator reported that a tiger had been spotted at the adjacent golf course (why did it not strike him that Hampshire golf courses are not the commonest habitats for tigers?). As players rushed back to safety, helicopters infested the ground with thermal imaging cameras.

It turned out to be a toy tiger. Play resumed twenty minutes later.

13. Fighter plane:  Cricket was sparse during World War II. One of the matches, between Army and RAF at Lord’s, attracted a crowd of around 3,100, and featured several Test stars. Army batted first, and when they reached 57 for 1, it happened.

A German aircraft had managed to infiltrate British defences, and was heard hovering in the proximity of Lord’s. As it descended with a whistling sound, players and spectators threw themselves on the ground…

Thankfully, the danger passed. Wisden reported that it landed in Regent’s Park, while Andrew Ward wrote that it fell about 200 yards short of Lord’s, at Albert Road.

14. Porn! The incident took place at The Oval, in a Test between England and South Africa. After Neil Adcock skittled out the hosts for 155, the tourists acquired a 264-run lead. But Geoff Pullar and Colin Cowdrey scored big hundreds, pulling England out of danger. They reached 380 for 4 by stumps, and following a delayed start (due to rain, not porn), chances of a result looked bleak.

Brian Johnston decided to brighten things up a bit. He acquired what he later referred to as “one of those very rude seaside posters” and sent it in an envelope to Adcock via South African 12th man Geoffrey Griffin.

Adcock did not take it seriously. He tucked it in his pocket and bowled another over. Then he saw it, and was in splits. The South African fielders gathered around Adcock, and as expected, they, too, were in peals of laughter. The batsmen joined in, as did the umpire, and cricket was held up.

Meanwhile, the perpetually mischievous Johnston pretended innocence. He even discussed with his colleagues on BBC Test Match Special exactly what the contents might have been. He speculated on air: “We heard our colleagues in the radio box next to us speculating. Had Adcock’s wife had twins or had he won the pools or what?”

15. Animals: Dogs: And finally, the animals, who should ideally feature in a separate article; of these, dogs deserve special mention.

There have been several instances of dogs stopping play, most of which happened in India and Sri Lanka. There was also an instance of a reasonably large dog (in a red collar) entering Newlands during an IPL 2009 match. Let us, however, focus on the most renowned ones.

 

The most spectacular of which took place in the Trent Bridge Ashes Test of 1993. A mongrel entered the ground as Merv Hughes ran in to bowl to Mark Lathwell. Hughes himself approached the dog. He got down on his knees and requested the dog to leave. To everyone’s surprise, the mutt agreed. Michael Slater eventually carried it away, and it was immediately adopted by one of the spectators. Rumours are that they called it Merv.

Yorkshire’s Richard Blakey swept Surrey’s Saqlain Mushtaq for four in 2002. When the ball was recovered, Surrey captain Adam Hollioake complained that it was completely mangled, almost beyond recognition. Bumper, the Labrador of Geoffrey Dean of The Times, had apparently mistaken it for a snack.

16. Animals: Others: Though Peter and Sinbad both ruled Lord’s, they rarely stopped cricket matches. However, the cat that walked on to the ground during a match between Southern Schools and The Rest did not care much for protocol. It settled down at the non-striker’s end, holding up play for a reasonable amount of time.

Monkeys have stopped matches at least twice: Jacko, the famous Poona monkey, had decided to field at mid-wicket in a MCC vs Maharashtra match in 1951-52, while England’s 2012-13 tour match against Haryana at Motera was interrupted by probably one of Jacko’s descendants.

Nobody knows the name of the genius who sneaked in a live pig to The Gabba; he put an apple in its mouth, and convinced the guards that the pig would become his lunch. It was eventually let loose, with EDDIE written on one side and BEEFY on the other.

The match between James Lillywhite’s XI and Goulburn XXII at Goulburn Sports Ground in 1876-77 (the first two Tests were played on this tour) saw a pitch invasion by six hares and two kangaroos.

There have been several matches disturbed by raging bulls, but the most spectacular cattle invasion came in a match between Kentisbare and Exmouth: after a ball was hit for four, a cow simply gobbled it up.

Several camels once escaped a Cornish circus and invaded a match between Launceston Cricket Club and Old Stuttonians.

A flock of sheep rushed on to Ebbw Vale to bring a Gloucestershire vs Glamorgan match to a halt. Ten more minutes were spent to clean up the residue.

Ducks turned up to stop a Test between England and West Indies at Chester-le-Street. More famously, a spectator had let loose a duck at MCG in 1981-82, mocking Greg Chappell’s string of ducks.

English fielders famously refused to field at deep fine-leg when England played Sri Lankan Board President’s XI at Colombo, 2007-08. However, play was not held up. However, when Young England and Sri Lanka Colts played at the straight ground, an iguana held up play.

Four matches in Queensland, as late as in 2003-04, were stopped by toad invasions.

A seagull had lifted a mackerel from the sea-pen of Bristol Zoo. It was making its way to a safe place to devour it, but dropped it in front of Simon Hazlitt, batting for Old Cliftonians CC against Stowe Templers. The fish splattered all over, but thankfully no serious damage was done.

In a 1934 match on a beach in Sohar (believed to be Sinbad the Sailor’s birthplace), the ball was hit hard into the sea, where a shark ate it. The scorers jotted down “caught Fish bowled Birkat Ullah”…

There have been instances of swarms of bees and plagues of grasshoppers, ladybirds, and flying ants stopping play.

And finally, there was the incident in Antarctica that led Harry Thompson to name his famous book Penguins Stopped Play. In case anyone is interested, they were Adélie Penguins.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor of CricketCountry and CricLife. He tweets at @ovshake42.)

 

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