User:The C of E/Windows

"Windowgate" is the name given to an incident that happened on 7 June 2011 at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, England during a cricket match between England and Sri Lanka.

Events
During the second Test match of Sri Lanka's tour of England, England wicketkeeper, Matt Prior was run out for 4 runs in his second innings by Prasanna Jayawardene after having scored 126 in his first innings. Upon returning to the Lord's Pavilion, Prior placed his cricket bat near a window in the home dressing room. The bat then slipped from its position and fell, breaking one of the windows of the pavilion. As a result of this an associate member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, who had been sitting below the dressing room balcony at the time, was injured by falling glass. Shortly afterwards, Prior and the England captain, Andrew Strauss went down to apologize to her.

Aftermath
The day afterwards, the International Cricket Council charged Prior with a Level 1 violation of clause 2.1.2 of the ICC Code of Conduct. Prior accepted the charge and was reprimanded but was not fined. He was also informed by the match referee "to be more careful in future". Prior's England teammates jokingly claimed that he had thrown the bat through the window intentionally. England coach, Andy Flower described it as a "freak accident".

A differing account of the event arose after the England and Wales Cricket Board released a conflicting press statement claiming that the window was broken due to Prior throwing one of his gloves off in anger. The glove then hit a kitbag which ricocheted into a nearby cricket bat which broke the window. After speaking to Flower, the ECB released a second statement affirming that it was the bat slipping that had caused the damage. Media reports originally assumed that Prior had broken the window on purpose. Prior later responded by stating that it was not intentional. The MCC replaced the broken window, as well as all the windows in the home dressing room, with reinforced glass at their own expense, declining Prior's offer to pay for the replacement.