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Cricket and social distancing: the best viral videos – part two: the players

by Wisden Staff 5 minute read

It’s not just amateur cricketers who have been struggling with the lack of cricket. For the pros, the bat and ball game is more than a job, and they have had to find ways to keep themselves occupied as well.

For an energetic and competitive group, having to spend forced time at home can be tough, but they have soldiered on anyway.

Mark Wood, rarely far from the picture when it comes to cricketing comedy, put together a dance video we might never attempt, but which we’ll also never forget. Kitted out in a top seemingly inspired by Britney Spears’ Hit Me Baby One More Time video, Wood’s ‘Sexy Kitten’ is the dance move you didn’t know you needed in your life.

Somehow, Liam Plunkett’s response was just as good, adding an artistic touch that not many would have realised the rugged seamer had in him.

Some have enlisted any help they can to play something approaching regular cricket. Kane Williamson got his dog involved, with spectacular results. We’re not sure what’s more surprising – the pup’s slip-catching skills or that New Zealand’s captain hit it to a fielder for once!

Much more realistic for those plying their trade in the lower reaches of club cricket was Tom Banton’s pet’s effort, or lack thereof.

But a cut above, as ever, was Ian Ronald Bell, who gave us a reminder of his glorious cover-driving skills, flaunted his supply of toilet roll, and taught his offspring a valuable lesson all at once.

Turns out, like his father, his son’s more of a batsman, unfurling a tasty front-foot shot of his own. Bell describes his own bowling as “horrible to face”, but that didn’t stop the little ‘un pumping one back past his old man.

For more of the best ‘cricket in quarantine’ videos, click here.

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