Climate protesters bring Lord's Test to standstill

Three people have been arrested after protest action at Lord’s saw Australia and England players dramatically restrain ground invaders to stop them from damaging the second Ashes Test pitch on Wednesday morning (local time).

The Marylebone Cricket Club, the custodians of the ground regarded as the ‘home of cricket’, condemned the incident that saw protesters wearing 'Just Stop Oil' t-shirts and holding bags of orange powder run onto the ground during the second over of play on day one.

Jonny Bairstow charged at one of the protesters, picking him up and carrying him all the way to the boundary rope where ground security and police took over.

David Warner, who was opening the batting, along with England captain Ben Stokes then intercepted the second protester, who dumped his stash of fluorescent powder near the Nursery End's run-up, but well away from the pitch.

Bairstow had to run off the ground to change his shirt after the first protester emptied his powder while he was being carried by the England wicketkeeper.

A third protester also jumped the fence and was lying down near the boundary rope before security removed her.

Security eventually got the situation under control, while groundstaff used leaf blowers to remove the orange powder from the outfield.

The match was delayed for around five minutes.

It was later confirmed that three people had been arrested for aggravated trespassing and had been taken into custody by Metropolitan Police.

"MCC condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s pitch incursion and with (sic) the behaviour of the protestors involved," MCC chief executive Guy Lavender said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Their actions not only endanger themselves and those who work at the ground, but they have consistently shown complete disregard for the people who pay to attend events, not just here at Lord’s but around the country at other sporting venues."

Activists from the Just Stop Oil organisation have staged protests all around the United Kingdom, putting sporting bodies and other large organisations on notice.

The group covered an energy company’s building in orange paint in Canary Wharf on Tuesday and have halted traffic in London with ‘slow marches’.

The world snooker championships were affected in April when activists covered a playing table in orange powder.

"Me and Stokesy, we didn't really know what to do," Warner said at his post-play press conference.

"We'd been warned beforehand that it might happen. In that instance we want to protect our wicket (the pitch). We saw in the billiards a month or so, so we just wanted to protect the wicket.

"It's a touchy situation, you don't want to be involved in that. But you want to stop them from getting on the wicket.

"It's quite confronting because you don't know what to do in that situation.

"Normally you just let (the situation) run its course, but because they could potentially damage the wicket, we felt like we could intervene and not let get them as close as possible."

Back-up pitches have been prepared for previous Tests in case of protesters damaging the playing surface, which could otherwise have the potential for a match to be abandoned.

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood