England cricketers in harrowing taxi mishap

Four members of the England cricket team, in town to face Pakistan this week, had a harrowing experience in an Abu Dhabi taxi over the weekend.

Stuart Broad, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen and Monty Panesar were in a silver taxi in the capital when the car's bonnet unlatched and flew up on to the windscreen while the vehicle was travelling at 100kph.

The players were unharmed and made it to a full training session at Sheikh Zayed Stadium Saturday evening.

Pietersen tweeted soon after the incident: "I'll tell you what's not pleasant … Driving at 100km/h & the bonnet of the car decides to fly open & slam the window.. #scary."

A spokesman for TransAD, the Abu Dhabi taxi regulator, said it was a one-off incident which happened in the middle of the road.

"The driver had nothing to do with it at all and the taxi operator will be informed by the driver regarding this incident and any other," he said.

He added it was a very rare incident and that drivers were trained to deal with all types of incidents.

A spokesperson for the English Cricket Team said: "The players are unharmed and are fully focussed on preparing for the first one-day international beginning [Monday]. We have no further comment to make."

It is believed the players were on a short trip from the hotel when it happened. They will play Pakistan today in the first of four one day internationals.

eharnan@thenational.ae