It was the early hours of Friday morning and England’s cricketers were slumbering soundly in their Leeds hotel beds. Suddenly the fire alarm sounded, forcing the sleepy cricketers out of their beds and onto the forecourt of the hotel for 20 minutes whilst the alarm was investigated.
Just hours later they were on the cricket pitch and that day saw the worst England have played. Despite batting first, England collapsed all out at 102.
A group of fans from the Fanatics celebrate England's defeat.
 Now it appears that Australian die-hard fans from the Fanatics group of supporters have claimed responsibility for setting off the fire alarm at the hotel where the England cricketers were staying.
It was initially thought that the alarm was set off by a female guest drying her underwear, but head of the fanatics group Warren ‘Woz’ Livingstone said: “Yes it was one of our guys who did it as a bit of a prank,”
“We’ve all had a big laugh and it might have made a difference to the way they batted.”
The fanatics consist of a group of Australian sports fans led by Warren Livingstone. Although they claim to be Australia’s unofficial cheering squad, their activities are not confined to sport. They have their own website and do promotional tours to Pamplona for the running of the bulls for example.Â
It’s not the first time that the group have sought controversy, back in 2005 during the tennis quarter-final between Australia and South America members of the fanatics group turned up wearing t-shirts that depicted the South Americans as drug cheats.
Whether Friday’s antics by the fanatics had anything to do with their poor batting that day we won’t know, but it all went wrong from thereon in. Saturday saw them close the day on 82-5, still 261 runs behind Australia’s first innings total.
If England carry on playing in this abysmal fashion, it could all be over by Monday and regaining the Ashes would just be another pipe dream.
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One Response to “Fanatics Responsible for Fire Alarm Hoax”
Pingback by England player throws KKR jersey in Ishant Sharma’s hotel room | Faking News — July 25, 2011 @ 5:21 am
[...] hotels are not new.“English cricketers’ performance had suffered when they were woken up by a false fire alarm set up by Australian fans two years ago,” Rahul Saraf, a cricket expert recalled, “Now the [...]