Pigeons being conspicuously indifferent to an England v Ireland Test match

2 minute read

If you’ve got a picture of an animal being conspicuously indifferent to cricket, please send it to king@kingcricket.co.uk.

Last summer, Doctor Alexander Snoddie, one of the Doctors of Leamington, initiated correspondence with regular King Cricket contributor Ged Ladd…

Snoddie: Delighted to bump into you in the jacks… and [Daisy] too, patiently waiting outside the jacks…

… I suppose this is too poor to be sent to King Cricket for the ‘Animals totally disregarding cricket’ section [sic]: two pigeons eating the seeds sown by Karl McDermott [Lord’s Head Groundsman] whilst the substitute [Dan Lawrence] guards the covers, with Ireland in full flow on Day 3…

…you may need a bit of zoom…

Ged: We have the technology, but can you send me a better-quality copy of that image? The version you sent me is about one pixel per pigeon. Also, can you supply a few more words to support your (self-admittedly poor) visuals? Was the indifference simply about eating rather than observing cricket, or were the pigeons “giving cricket the bird” even when not eating?

Snoddie: I think I have been too clever by a quarter… don’t understand tech… nor pigeon behaviour… I’m not Doctor Doolittle… best pass on to cricket square pastures new.

Ged: Understood, but, undeterred. I have sent your picture to deep learning image generating tool DALL-E, instructing it thus: “The two pigeons to the left and right of the nearest person should be larger, more prominent and be looking away from all the people”.

Here is the result.

Snoddie: Hold the front page, King Cricket, we’ve got a scoop for you!