Sabina Park and 5 Other Farcical Moments in Cricket History

Over the course of cricket’s long history, there have been many moments of great pride but also some that have not shown the sport in its best light.

Like every human endeavour, there are inevitably some times where farce and chaos reign, and unfortunately these are beamed around the world by television and other media.

It is the anniversary of one of these farcical moments—the abandoned Test between the West Indies and England in 1998 at Sabina Park in Jamaica.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five moments that have not shown cricket in its best light.

Ten years after that Jamaica abandonment, the West Indies and England saw their 2008-09 series affected by another such game, this time in Antigua.

The game began at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, but it quickly became clear that the field was not in a fit state for play, especially from where the bowlers ran into the crease.

That led ICC match referee Alan Hurst to abandon the game after just 10 balls, with opening bowlers Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor both struggling to hit their delivery strides.

They were both slipping on the sand-based outfield, which was criticised heavily after the game was called off.

It meant a hastily arranged Test at the Antigua Recreation Ground to make up for the abandonment and was highly embarrassing for the West Indies Cricket Board.

In 1998 came the original abandonment, as England and the West Indies lasted 10.1 overs in the first Test at Sabina Park in Jamaica.

During those 55 minutes of play, the away side’s batsmen took some fearful blows from the hosts’ opening bowlers, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose.

The pitch was so variable in bounce that some balls would virtually shoot along the ground, while others would pitch in a similar place and balloon over the wicketkeeper’s head.

Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe both faced up bravely to the pitch’s demons, but after physio Wayne Morton made six trips to the middle, they decided enough was enough.

Captains Michael Atherton and Brian Lara conferred with the two umpires and the match referee, and the game was abandoned.

The 1992 Cricket World Cup was notable for the return of South Africa to the international fold after years of exile over apartheid, and they had swept all before them.

The Proteas reached the semi-final stage against England, but the game at the Sydney Cricket Ground was affected by rain, so the tournament’s rain rules came into effect.

It was a complex rule devised by a panel of experts and designed to reduce a chasing team’s target proportionally to the lowest-scoring overs of the team that batted first.

However, with the run chase almost finished, that served to hamstring the South Africans, who were shown to need 22 runs from one ball under the rules.

England left the field after Chris Lewis’ final ball slightly sheepishly, having taken the win by virtue of a bizarre quirk of the rules.

The 2007 Cricket World Cup was an inexorable slog of a tournament that took far too long and had far too many games held with the backdrop of empty stadiums.

However, the final between Australia and Sri Lanka really took the biscuit, as both umpires and ICC officials seemingly had no idea how to follow the rules that surround bad light that causes play to stop.

Sri Lanka needed 63 runs off 18 balls when the darkness started to descend, and the batsmen chose to concede and go off, knowing that they would likely not return.

The Australians celebrated their apparent tournament victory. But then umpires Aleem Dar, Steve Bucknor and a legion of support staff decided that the game was not over.

Instead, everyone trooped back to the middle and played out the final overs in almost complete darkness, even though the mandatory minimum of 20 overs had been played out.

The whole thing left a bitter taste for all concerned—even the victorious Australians. There were also consequences for the officials, who were all banned from the ICC World Twenty20.

Pakistan’s Test match against England at The Oval in 2006 was finely balanced, but it ended farcically as the visitors refused to retake the field after being accused of ball tampering.

The accusation came on the fourth day when umpire Darrell Hair examined the ball. Rather than give the away side a warning, he simply awarded England five penalty runs.

That made the Pakistanis incredibly angry, and after the tea interval, they appeared to refuse to emerge from their dressing room.

In response, Hair removed the bails and declared that they had forfeited the game, but then a little later on, Pakistan appeared on the field and looked ready to resume.

It took four hours to confirm that the Test was really at an end, as the umpires had objected to restarting the following morning.

It was an ugly incident—one that still has repercussions as the ICC have since changed the result on two other occasions, first to a draw and then back to an England win.