england players urinate on the pitch

The Splashes: England players celebrate Ashes victory by urinating on The Oval pitch

Malcolm Conn
News Limited Network
August 26, 2013

ASHES SCOREBOARD
England Oval Ashes win

Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Graeme Swann of England watch Jonathan Trott kiss the urn after winning the Ashes during day five of the fifth Ashes Test.

In a distasteful display about five hours after the last Test was called off for bad light with England in sight of victory, the players gathered near the pitch celebrating and yahooing.

While the centre of the ground was quite dark, lights were on in the grandstands with dozens of people still cleaning up after a late finish which saw the game go beyond 7.30pm

A number of players including Stuart Broad, Kevin Pietersen and Jimmy Anderson took it in turns urinating on the pitch to the cheers of their team mates.

This could be clearly seen from the outside overflow areas of the press box.

It would have been the only moisture applied to the pitch for quite some time given the deliberate dry and dusty nature of the pitches presented in this Test series to blunt Australia’s pace attack and aid spinner Graeme Swann, the highest wicket-taker in the series.

The incident brought back memories of the pitch party in Perth two seasons ago, when Indian film crews took footage of ground staff drinking on the WACA wicket the night before the Test.

The following day a clip titled ''Booze Party on Perth pitch sparks storm'' had attracted 680,000 views on Youtube.

It showed a staff member shadow-batting on the pitch while beer bottles were perched on the surface.

Curator Cam Sutherland agreed it was not a good look and it was unfortunate that administrative staff had walked on the wicket, but all he and his ground staff had been doing was inspecting its ''aesthetics''.

Despite the embarrassment, outgoing WACA chief executive Graeme Wood defended his staff's annual Test-eve drinks.

''It's a traditional event,'' he said. ''The ground staff have put an enormous amount of work into getting the wicket and the ground up to a magnificent state. Some of the support staff and ground staff that were still here at the ground at 8 o'clock just ventured out on to the ground to salute Cam and the guys.''

After yesterday’s match England captain Alastair Cook played down the frustration of the game being called off with England needing just 21 from four overs with five wickets in hand following a sporting declaration from Michael Clarke.

Obviously his players took their annoyance out on the pitch later on.

"Of course you understand the frustration, but you can also understand the other side,” Cook said.

“You understand the rules and regs. Unfortunately the officials sometimes have to take emotion out oft the game and do their job and be consistently fair to both sides.

“Of course it’s disappointing to be sitting here when we felt we could have taken those runs of the last 4 overs. I understand the umpires’ decision and why it happened.

“If it was the third day no-one would be moaning about it.

“If the boot was on the other foot we'd probably be asking the same questions.

“It was a shame for the amazing crowd we’ve had here but we weren’t allowed to play to the finish. There are certain guidelines and that’s the way cricket has gone.”

Classy POMS ROTFLMAO