England vs West Indies third ODI toss delayed and the reason is London traffic

In a bizarre incident, a traffic congestion in London caused the delay of toss for the third ODI between England and West Indies on Tuesday (June 3). West Indies, because of the traffic jam, could not reach Kia Oval - the venue of the third ODI - in time and the toss was pushed back.

"Due to a delayed arrival of one of the playing teams, who are stuck in heavy traffic north of the river, the scheduled start of play will be delayed," an ECB spokesperson said as reported by ESPNCricinfo. "Once all members of the playing teams arrive, the match officials will coordinate updated timings and discuss any impact on the schedule of play."

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West Indies arrived at the ground at 12:40 pm local time, 10 minutes after the scheduled toss time. Following the incident, toss was pushed to 1:10 pm local time with the start rescheduled at 1:30 pm.

The match was already under a cloud of uncertain weather as groundstaff covered the pitch with covers with home team doing the warm up.

West Indies were staying in Chelsea Harbour Hotel and Spa and the delay was caused by traffic light outage in the Vauxhall Cross area.

Transport for London (TfL) also reported "serious delays" in the Kennington area and suggested the travelers to use other routes and "expect delays in the surrounding area."

Cricket West Indies spokesperson also confirmed the same and said: "There were some road closures."

The match, however, holds no meaning in terms of series result as England already have a 2-0 unassailable lead in the three-ODI series.

West Indies although, have much to lose as they are looking to get some points with a win in a bid to automatically qualify for the 2027 ODI World Cup.