Top 5 instances of players reaching the venue after the start of the game

In his book, Ben Stokes recalled the 2013 County game to have witnessed one of his memorable days as Durham went on to win the Division One Championship at the end of the game. In the match against Nottinghamshire, Stokes arrived at the venue in the afternoon from England duty. He was allowed to take place of Umar Arshad as a full substitute who had already picked up a wicket.

Players reaching the venue during a match isn’t rare especially in County Cricket which allows full substitutes for England duty which is quite common compared to other countries. But when it comes to International Cricket and other domestic competitions, the teams are forced to be 10-man side if there are any players not present at the venue despite being part of the playing XI.

Here are few instances in official matches where a team began with only ten available players in the XI:

5. Brandon Bess – West Indies vs South Africa, 2010 Bridgetown Test

South Africa was leading the 3-match Test series in 2010 against West Indies by 1-0 before the two sides travelled to Bridgetown for the final match. Darren Sammy was ruled out of the Test due to a thigh injury and Nelon Pascal was set to take his place. Pascal made his debut during the first Test of this series but went wicketless which saw him getting dropped for the 2nd Test match.

During the warm-ups ahead of the game, Pascal suffered a neck injury ruling him out of the game. As the toss took place, the West Indies team decided to pick Guyana pacer, Brandon Bess. Interestingly, Bess was in the High-Performance Centre at that point which was a 5 km drive away from the venue and was expected to reach after the scheduled start of the game only.

However, Chris Gayle won the toss and electing to bat first meant Bess wouldn’t be missed. Brandon Bess eventually made it to the Kensington Oval during the first over of the game. Bess had a horrific debut as he conceded 92 runs in the 13 overs he bowled across the two innings and picked up only one wicket in return. South Africa won the match by 7 wickets while Bess never got to play for the West Indies again.