{"id":312370,"date":"2023-06-28T21:10:13","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T21:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=312370"},"modified":"2023-06-29T01:00:21","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T01:00:21","slug":"players-on-edge-after-confronting-pitch-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=312370","title":{"rendered":"Players on edge after 'confronting' pitch protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Warner<\/a> says he and other players felt compelled to act when protesters invaded the pitch on day one of the Ashes<\/a> Test at Lord's, despite being told not to.<\/p>\n

Warner was among the players to try and stop two Just Stop Oil protesters from reaching the pitch with orange chalk.<\/p>\n

That led to bizarre scenes as England's wicketkeeper Johnny Bairstow carried one of the invaders from the field<\/a> while another was caught by security, but not before reaching Warner and opposition captain Ben Stokes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AS IT HAPPENED:<\/strong> The Ashes second Test, day one<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> England star drags invader off in bizarre delay<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Walsh 'ruining' reputation with classless acts\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

For his troubles, Bairstow's whites got covered in chalk, necessitating a change of clothes and a short delay.<\/p>\n

\"England's<\/p>\n

The protesters were unsuccessful in reaching the pitch but dropped a bag of chalk in the bowler's run-up area.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the first day, Australia's opening batter said players were told not to confront the protesters.<\/p>\n

"In that instance, we wanted to protect the wicket," said Warner.<\/p>\n

Every ball of the Ashes will be live, free and exclusive on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, and if you miss any of the action you can find full highlights and exclusive replays after every day's play<\/strong><\/em> here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"We were told to stand away and be careful. We know what they are trying to do to the wicket, so for us, it was about protecting the wicket and the best interests of what we felt out there.<\/p>\n

"I don't know what that chalk could have done to the wicket, but it would have been a long delay."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The UK-based Just Stop Oil protesters have targetted major sporting events over the last 12 months, including the Formula 1 British Grand Prix and Formula E in Berlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Orange chalk and paint has become synonymous with the organisation, spilling it on a snooker table at the world championship event<\/a> as well as the Rugby Premiership final.<\/p>\n

It's not the first Test match to be affected by protests either. England were stopped on their way to Lords for their one-off match with Ireland when protesters blocked the team's bus.<\/p>\n

Warner, whose teammate Pat Cummins is a vocal advocate of climate change awareness, said it was a "touchy situation."<\/p>\n

"You don't want to be involved in that," said Warner.<\/p>\n

"It was quite confronting because you don't know what to do."<\/p>\n

\"Second<\/p>\n

According to the BBC, players were told by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) not to confront protesters if such incidents were to occur.<\/p>\n

England bowler Josh Tongue hailed his teammate for intervening.<\/p>\n

"If Jonny didn't do what he did, who knows where the game could be now? It could've been called off," Tongue told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

"He's a bit of a hero! My back was turned. I heard Jonny shout and then saw him running after him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I probably wouldn't have gone towards them, just in case they had anything else on them."<\/p>\n

Australia ended day one 5-339 with Steve Smith and Alex Carey at the crease on 85 and 11 respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Warner says he and other players felt compelled to act when protesters invaded the pitch on day one of the Ashes Test at Lord's, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":312372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=312370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312375,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312370\/revisions\/312375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/312372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=312370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=312370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=312370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}