Snake’s Tryst with Cricket at Ranji Trophy Match in Kolkata

Snake’s Tryst with Cricket at Ranji Trophy Match in Kolkata: Can anyone think of a Snake entering into cricket field? Obviously, most will answer it emphatic no but such a kind of rarest incident took place earlier today at the JU Salt Lake Campus stadium in Kolkata where Bengal and Vidarbha were playing at the ongoing Ranji Trophy.

A four-foot long snake accidentally entered into the stadium leaving many cricketers, audience and match officials shocked and frightened. Whoever saw the snake termed it poisonous. In fact, many assumed that the reptile belonged to the family of extremely poisonous cobra or Scaled Viper’s.

The incident brought around 5-10 minute interruption in the match but full credit goes to the groundsmen and Bengal support staff who not only ensured that snake run away from the field but also fought tooth and nail with the reptile for the safety of players with limited resources. No doubt, these brave staff had a hard time driving out the snake from the ground using sticks and other materials. Shockingly, the ground staff had no safety precautions in place to tackle the matter more vehemently. They didn’t have even a bottle of Carbolic acid at their disposal.

Thankfully, once the snake ran away no untoward incident happened and the match resumed after a short hiatus. Though, snake was away but fears on the faces of players were still visible especially the Vidarbha – fielding team. Fielders were not only looking at the balls but they stayed very cautious throughout the day staring at each grass and corner with sharp eyes and close attention.

Meanwhile, Bengal batsmen took the full advantage of overcautious and distracted fielders scoring heavily on all sides of the field. Bengal batsmen Sayan Mondal and Abhimanyu Easwaran played fantastic knocks scoring a century and half-century respectively that helped Bengal finish their first innings on 334 on Day 2.

Snake Terror Came Back

After the innings, when players were heaving a sigh of relief and relaxing a few happy moments together the news of snake in the Bengal dressing-room lavatory almost terrorized every one present there. However, it’s still unclear whether this was the same snake that players saw in the morning or was it the different one?

Later on, Bengal Cricket officials did shoo the creatures away within a few minutes but the incident raised several questions about players’ safety on the ground.

A few years back, similar incident happened when a snake was spotted at a cricket match in Colombo in 2007-08 but the creature was not removed from the ground for the reasons best known to the match officials present there. Fielders simply avoided to field at long leg where snake was relaxing. However, the match ended happily as no unpleasant episode occurred that day and everyone reached their home safely from the stadium.