On the morning of what turned out to be one of the greatest Test matches ever played — the 2005 Edgbaston Ashes Test — Glenn McGrath, Australia's most lethal bowler, was warming up on the outfield when he stood on a stray cricket ball and rolled his ankle badly. He went down like a man who had just discovered a trapdoor, and he was ruled out of the match.
The sight of Australia's premier fast bowler hopping around the outfield clutching his ankle after stepping on a ball was equal parts alarming and absurd. McGrath had played 124 Tests, survived fast bowling spells in conditions around the world, endured the physical punishment of 17 years of international cricket, and been uninjured through countless gruelling matches — only to be felled by a ball lying on the grass during warm-ups. It was the sporting equivalent of surviving a war and then tripping over the welcome-home mat.
England, who had been dreading facing McGrath on a helpful pitch — McGrath at Edgbaston, with the ball seaming and swinging, was every batsman's worst nightmare — could barely believe their luck. They went on to win the Test by just 2 runs in one of the most thrilling matches in Ashes history, a match that McGrath's bowling might well have swung Australia's way. Two runs. That was the margin. And McGrath wasn't playing because he'd stepped on a ball.
Cricket fans debated: who left that ball on the outfield? Was it an accident or a deeply cunning piece of English groundsmanship? A conspiracy theory emerged that the ball was deliberately placed there by an English supporter or even an England player, though no evidence ever supported this. McGrath himself later joked about it, but at the time, there was nothing funny about Australia's plans being derailed by a piece of equipment lying on the ground.