Random Cricket Photos Post 29




“Wait, when did a player use a phone on the cricket pitch last time?”

If you’re scratching your head and trying to remember who this former English cricketer is, you can spare that effort. Because this ain’t no cricketer.

In the fourth Ashes Test in 2001 at Headingley, famous prankster Karl Power did something cheeky when he executed a well-planned prank. When England were batting on the second day of the match, the famous prankster walked out to the playing field, leaving everyone amused and men in charge of the ground’s security seething.

He stood waiting in the toilet in the players’ tunnel for an hour. When Marcus Trescothick got out edging behind, Power was supposed to get a call on his phone which would have signalled that it was showtime. Unfortunately, he got a call from someone else which he took as the signal.

Now the problem was that Nasser Hussain had already strolled out and was in the middle. But Power didn’t know. With his head down, he walked past people to make his way into the field of play with officials thinking that he was possibly coming on as one of the batsman’s runner. In full gear, he swung his bat in warm up when approaching the pitch as if he was ready to take on the likes of McGrath and Warne.

Within a few seconds, his phone rung again. At this point, Power turned around, took off his helmet to reveal himself and made some dramatic gestures, much to the crowd’s amusement. And he walked off, leaving a lot of smiling faces in the crowd as well as on the pitch. Darren Gough later said that for a moment, he thought it was his teammate Mark Ramprakash walking out.

With England trailing 0-3 in the series thanks to their inept batting, one of the Test Match Special commentators took the opportunity to take a jibe at the English batsmen. He said about Power, "He is not the only one to masquerade as an England batsmen."

You think that’s cheeky? Well, that’s nothing in front of him photo bombing a Manchester United’s team photo in a Champions League match. But that’s a ‘Power-ful’ story for some other day.
Photo by Richard Lane

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