In a bizarre incident, a swarm of bees spread around the field and led to an unforeseen halt in a Division 2 County Championship game on May 15. The Leicestershire versus Sussex encounter played at Grace Road saw an unexpected delay after the bees decided to make the playing ground their arena for a while.
Since the sting of bees threaten to harm the players and match officials, all of them collectively went down on the turf and stayed there for a bit. Leicestershire county, the home club for the first-class encounter, tweeted a clip of the same, leading to fun and laughs among the fans.
The incident happened in the back half of the 96th over in Leicestershire’s second-innings batting effort. Just as Sussex spinner Delray Rawlins was about to run into bowl at Leicestershire lower-order batter Callum Parkinson, the bowler saw a swarm of bees coming around from the side of his eyes and lay on the turf. Following him in the act soon were the two opposition batters, the rest of the Sussex fielders and the standing umpires.
With all involved in the game down on the turf, the bee attack made for some funny scenes, which were caught in a clip by the Leicestershire county club and shared later over social media.
For those following the game closely, the incident at the Grace Road ground reignited the memories of similar previous bee attacks on the cricket field, leading to the most hilarious set of halts in play that nobody would’ve anticipated.
In a famous one during the 2008 Test series between India and Australia, the great Sachin Tendulkar being one of the players was seen laying down the turf with his hat on to completely nullify the chances of catching a stinger.
The game of cricket has been stopped due to animal interventions multiple times, with dogs being the most frequent cause of halt to the proceedings. But the swarm of bees is considered the most dangerous, as it is the toughest to quickly end and puts players’ on-ground health at risk.
