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A country Victorian cricket league is investigating after two bits of chewing gum were found stuck underneath the bails in a division one match.
Key points:
- The chewing gum was discovered when the bails failed to dislodge cleanly during a run-out attempt
- The Woodford club said it wasn't accusing West Warrnambool of cheating
- Warrnambool District Cricket Association has launched an investigation into the incident
The round-eight Warrnambool District Cricket Association (WDCA) match between Woodford and West Warrnambool was marred by the bizarre incident that left officials from both clubs scratching their heads.
It's a uniquely sticky situation that was uncovered early in the match during an attempted run-out.
Woodford's wicketkeeper's attempted to whip off the bails to dismiss a West Warrnambool batsman.
The bails didn't come off cleanly and, after further inspection, two bits of chewing gum were found on the underside of the wooden bails, securing them to the top of the stumps.
"Someone went to knock the stumps off and the bails just didn't dislodge," Woodford coach John Houston said.
"We went to pick the bails up and it [chewing gum] was underneath the bails."
Mr Houston said his club wasn't accusing West Warrnambool of cheating, but they remain baffled why the chewing gum was there in the first place.
"It wasn't an overly windy day, I don't know. It's just a bit confusing it's happened, really," he said.
Incident didn't affect match result
The Woodford Eels won the division one match by just four runs after setting West Warrnambool a target of 183 runs in their 45 overs.
West Warrnambool was bowled out for 179 with no balls to spare in a match that went right down to the line.
The team at Woodford said the chewing gum incident didn't affect the result.
"We're not saying that the chewy would have changed the result either way, we just can't believe it was there," Mr Houston said.
Mr Houston said he'd never heard of such an incident before.
"Everyone sort of said they had nothing to do with it," he said.
"It's probably not in the spirit of cricket, in some regards."
Investigation launched
An investigation has commenced and WDCA president Gordon McLeod will lead the three-person review of the events.
"It's in the very early stages [of the investigation], it's important we get all the information from everyone involved," Mr McLeod said.
"It'll happen sooner rather than later because we don't want to have this hanging around for a long time."
Mr McLeod said there was no place for that kind of behaviour in the league.
"During the time I've been here, which is quite a long time, I've never understood or heard or anything similar — and I'm not suggesting there's anything sinister involved in here either," he said.
"With anything like this that appears, you don't expect for it to have happened.
"All parties are being interviewed by the WDCA match committee."
It's not yet known when the committee will release the results of the investigation.
The West Warrnambool Cricket Club was contacted but were unavailable for comment.
Topics: sport, cricket, regional, offbeat, human-interest, warrnambool-3280, woodford-3281, melbourne-3000
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