The proceedings on the first morning of the second Ashes 2023 Test between England and Australia at Lord’s were briefly disrupted by a group of protesters from the ‘Just Stop Oil’ activist group on Wednesday.
Just before the second over of the match, protestors wearing ‘Just Stop Oil’ t-shirts and holding bags of orange powder, ran onto the ground. They however, didn’t entered the playing strip.
While England captain Ben Stokes stopped a protestor and a steward took care of another protestor, England stumper Jonny Bairstow ran into action by lifting and carrying one protestor off the field, all by himself. The ground staff then arrived to sweep and remove the orange powder paint which had spilled on the outfield.
Meanwhile, Bairstow had to go to the dressing room to change his white shirt and wicket-keeping gloves, which got dirty by orange powder paint.
Overall, play was delayed for around six minutes before action resumed at the Lord’s.
Notably, it was for the second time that the England team have been interrupted by a ‘Just Stop Oil’ protest as earlier on the first day of the one-off Test against Ireland at the same venue, their team bus suffered a brief halt after leaving the hotel for Lord’s by the protestors for five minutes.
Fearing disruption, international matches in England have prepared an extra pitch in case the original one is caused damage by the Just Stop Oil protestors, who have caused interruptions in sports events in the country this year.
Previously, two members of the ‘Just Stop Oil’ campaign had invaded the pitch of the Premiership Rugby final at Twickenham, spraying orange paint power, before being removed away by staff and players.