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Earthquake Hits U19 World Cup Match Between Ireland And Zimbabwe At Queen’s Park Oval

Muzamil Sherzad, an Afghanistan-born Ireland seamer, rocked Zimbabwe batting with a five-for (5-20) but much before that, the Zimbabweans experienced real time earthquake during their Plate semi-final in the Under-19 World Cup at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad on Saturday (January 29).

The live pictures of the match were seen violently shaking on the screen during the sixth over of Zimbabwe’s batting. Moments later, a commentator was heard telling his partner on air, “I believe we are having an earthquake mate… In the box we are indeed we having an earthquake…” There was no panic in the voice though.

It soon dawned on those at the ground that a 5.2 magnitude earthquake got registered in the Ritcher Scale which was later confirmed by a local Loopnews website report, which read like this: “A 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck near Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday morning. According to the UWI Seismic Research Centre, the quake occurred around 9:40am at a depth of 10km.”

“It was probably 15 to 20 seconds of extreme shaking,” Andrew Leonard, the commentator on air at that time, told Cricbuzz on Sunday morning (January 30). “(It) never felt like that the Media Centre would collapse or anything. It was lack of control… that you were not able to control the shaking…, and no one knew when it was going to end. It seemed to be getting intense particularly in the middle. (It was) a tiny bit scary I guess,” he explained.

In the middle, however, the players were seen quite cool least realising that the soil beneath them was quivering. “We didn’t know anything happened,” Tim Tactor, Ireland skipper, told this website through a voice note after his team’s eight-wicket victory. “We were on the grass and it probably did not translate to us. It was 5.2, it was pretty big but, no, we did not hear anything during the game.”

While the players in the middle were blissfully ignorant, those at the ground have told this website that the support staff of the teams were planning to rush to the middle. “The support staffs/coaches, who were in the pavilion couldn’t believe that the play was going on! And the shaking left them very worried,” said Leonard, who spoke to the Irish team later. “They were on the far side of the ground, in the Brian Lara Pavilion. They recognised immediately that it was an earthquake. The Irish support staff were ready to get into the field. It lasted for only 20 seconds, but the shaking was probably quite violent.”

An Ireland Cricket release on the match said, “Sherzad, though, wasn’t the only thing that struck at the Queens Park Oval today, with a 5.1 magnitude earthquake shaking the ground mid-way through the Zimbabwe innings. The commentary team, that featured Irishman Andrew Leonard, bravely continued commentating with good humour as an assessment was made of any potential damage to the historic ground that has stood on the site since 1896.”

After the tremors subsided, there were discussions about quakes during cricket matches. A Caribbean commentator recalled that such an incident was witnessed during a Test in the 80s when Viv Richards stopped the bowler till the shaking ended. But it apparently was seen for the first time on live television.

“No harm was done and it was really a strange and crazy moment,” said Leonard, an Irishman himself who specialises in commentary around the world and does all the pathway events for ICC on live streams. “It was incredibly surreal, that is the best way to describe. I come from that part of the world where we don’t have earthquakes and we do not know what to do when it happens. Our producers and co-commentators seemed much more worried. As I never experienced, I was probably calm on air as I did not really understand what was happening,” he remembered.

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