May 31 2009
Cricket can be hazardous to your health… if you’re a bird
The sport of cricket is rapidly becoming the RSPB’s nightmare; it’s a sad fact, but cricket can be a killer. Of birds.
Though we’re never likely to see mass pigeon or seagull culling on the outfield, considering the amount of cricket that goes on up and down the country, it’s not surprising that once every so often, a rather unlucky passing bird bites the dust at the hands of a low-flying ball.
Perhaps the most famous of these poor unfortunates is a sparrow currently housed in the Lord’s museum, pictured right. Hit by a Jehangir Khan delivery during a 1936 MCC fixture, it was stuffed the same day and mounted on the very ball that killed it.
The very latest addition to this rather sordid club is a pigeon hit by a Jacques Rudolph return throw during the Twenty20 match between Lancashire and Yorkshire on Friday. Play was halted momentarily, and a rather unsympathetic, most probably inebriated, crowd cheered as the bird was nonchalantly dumped just outside the boundary ropes to allow play to continue.
To add insult to injury, the match was broadcast on national television, meaning the bird’s demise was also witnessed by thousands of people in their living rooms the length and breadth of the country.
It proved to be the only thing Yorkshire were able cheer about, as they went on to lose by five wickets to their Roses rivals. The ultimate fate of the pigeon is unknown - maybe it has its own special position in the Headingley trophy cabinet alongside a crate of Tetley’s.
The Twenty20 World Cup gets underway this Friday with England against the Netherlands in the Group B opener at Lord’s. Let’s hope we have a feathered-fatality-free competition.
