A routine dinner turned chaotic for the Australian women’s cricket team in Visakhapatnam this week when a rat scurried through their hotel’s dining area during the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup 2025.
The players had just finished their meal when the small intruder suddenly appeared, prompting startled screams and a wave of laughter as the rodent darted between tables before being chased out by staff. The bizarre episode, caught on camera, has since gone viral, becoming both a humorous and controversial talking point across cricket circles.
Ashleigh Gardner, recounting the moment, said, “We were in Vizag, we’d all eaten dinner by this point, thankfully, and we were all kind of getting up to leave or making our way out, and then someone thought there was like a bread roll on the ground, and then it started moving. It turns out it was a rat. Kimmy J (Kim Garth) let out a bit of a squeal.”
Kim Garth, laughing about her reaction, admitted, “Oh yeah, I was a bit theatrical about the whole thing.” Gardner added that “everyone jumped up on their seats, you know, just in case the rat caught up their leg.”
Describing the chaos, Garth continued, “It kind of ran towards the back end of the restaurant, and the staff were obviously a bit frantic trying to catch it, and then there was a bin come out, and then one poor guy was trying to catch it, and then there was so much screaming. You can probably, I don’t know if you can hear it, but there was so much screaming.
“Then, like everyone was kind of okay, he’s gone, and then he comes running back through the restaurant like the whole way down. Oh, it was very chaotic, but it was quite funny.”
View this post on Instagram
Their lightheartedness struck a chord with fans worldwide, who found the team’s response refreshingly human amidst an intense tournament atmosphere.
However, beyond the laughter, the incident has sparked serious concerns over hygiene and facility management in the hotel where one of the world’s top teams was staying. For an international sporting event of this magnitude, the presence of a rat raises legitimate questions about maintenance and food safety compliance.
Visakhapatnam, which prides itself on being a major emerging sports and tourism hub, has faced public scrutiny before over hotel cleanliness standards. Just a month ago, municipal inspections revealed that nearly 60% of eateries in the city were violating food safety regulations, with issues ranging from unclean kitchens to the use of substandard ingredients.
In response to rising complaints, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) launched its “Eat Right Campaign” and deployed Sanitation & Health Enforcement (SHE) teams across the city to monitor hygiene in restaurants, hotels, and food stalls.
Each team includes food inspectors and medical officers responsible for ensuring proper kitchen conditions and ingredient verification. Officials say these efforts aim to educate establishments as much as penalise them, with penalties already imposed on several non-compliant businesses this year.
Still, the rat incident involving the Australian women’s team serves as a wake-up call. While Visakhapatnam’s administration has made visible strides toward improving urban cleanliness and hospitality standards, such lapses expose gaps between intent and implementation.
For the visiting players, it was a moment of shock that quickly turned into laughter. For the city, however, it was an embarrassing reminder that world-class events demand world-class standards, not just in cricket, but in cleanliness too.
Loves all things female cricket