Just Stop Oil protestors hold up England's bus ahead of Ireland Test
Just Stop Oil protestors hold up England’s bus ahead of first day of Ireland Test at Lord’s – before quick-thinking driver skirts the marchers to keep delay to just five minutes
- Jonny Bairstow took to Instagram to highlight the delay to England’s arrival
- The MCC said the safety of players and spectators at Lord’s was their ‘priority’
- EXCLUSIVE: Coach Toby Radford claims he has fallen victim to royalties scam
England’s team bus was held up by protestors on Thursday on its journey across London for the opening day of cricket’s international summer.
Yorkshire wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow took a photograph of Just Stop Oil’s demonstration through the vehicle’s windscreen and posted it on social media, warning: ‘If we’re abit (sic) late it’s not our fault.’
The planned slow march in the capital coincided with the 9am departure time from Kensington to Lord’s, and began just yards from the team hotel, but the delay was limited to five minutes after the driver skirted around the group.
A second such march took place in Battersea, not far from where the Australian team is staying ahead of next week’s sold-out World Test Championship final, although it was not known to have caused any disruption to the tourists’ plans to train at Beckenham.
Just Stop Oil acknowledged their attempts to affect the England v Ireland match with a set of cricket puns on Twitter.
Just Stop Oil protestors held up England’s bus on the way in to Lord’s for the first day against Ireland in a four-day Test
England bowled out Ireland for 172 before Ben Duckett (pictured) and Zak Crawley opened the hosts’ response
Jonny Bairstow highlighted the delay to the home side’s arrival on his Instagram account earlier on Thursday
‘They might know a bit about a batting collapse, but the climate crisis is no one-day international – it’s our biggest test,’ they wrote.
‘No-one is safe from climate collapse, it will destroy everything we care about. All we will have left is ashes. Oil and gas has had a good innings, but it’s time to declare.’
Cricket has been braced for environmental activists taking a stand, following the throwing of orange powder paint by invaders during the World Snooker Championship and Premiership Rugby final over recent weeks.
Marylebone Cricket Club, the owners of Lord’s, have taken steps to beef up security in the knowledge that any damage to the pitch would potentially curtail a Test match at the cost of millions of pounds.
Extra personnel were visible around the perimeter of the ground yesterday and the monitoring of those entering through the turnstiles was also stepped up.
A spokesperson for MCC said that the safety of players and spectators at Lord’s was their ‘highest priority,’ adding: ‘We have a number of ground regulations that help us achieve that; including not entering the playing area or demonstrating.
‘Whilst protests would disrupt the game, we have a number of security measures in place, some visible, some less so to deter this. In some areas we have enhanced those existing provisions ahead of this summer’s schedule.’
Just Stop Oil made several cricketing puns on their Twitter account after a march caused delays
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