It was not quite a case of planes, trains and automobiles but bikes, buses and by foot after the players and staff of England and West Indies got stuck in traffic on the way to the third one-day international at the Oval, forcing some to take extreme measures to find a way to the ground.
The England and Wales Cricket Board blamed “heavy traffic north of the river” – there was talk of broken down buses, a traffic light failure and extensive roadworks – for the delayed arrivals of both squads for a game that England eventually won at a canter.
The home side abandoned the team bus as it sat stationary midway between their Kensington hotel and the ground, completing their journey on Lime bikes, on foot or by train – Jamie Smith took the underground option, while there were confused looks from fans walking down Kennington Park Road in the direction of the ground, about 45 minutes before the scheduled start, perhaps thinking they themselves were running a bit late, as Joe Root and Adil Rashid strode past them.
“We didn’t even realise what time it was,” said Harry Brook, the England captain. “We were playing cards at the back of the bus and then next minute we look at the time and we just thought: ‘We’re going to have to get on some bikes.’”
Meanwhile, the tourists stayed on their coach as it crawled the 3.5 miles from their hotel in Chelsea at sub-pedestrian pace. So while the home side arrived later than anticipated, they still had plenty of time to go through their normal pre-match preparation of pig – a game of group keepy-uppy – and some work in the nets.
West Indies’ eventual arrival coincided with the scheduled time of the toss, which because of their absence had by then been pushed back by half an hour, and their preparations were so abbreviated the batters did not get a chance for a net before their innings started with, predictably, a few early wickets.
“It was very tough,” said Gudakesh Motie. “It was a long drive to the ground with a lot of traffic – it took about two hours on the bus – and then when we got to the ground we had only a few minutes before play.”
