Teen cricketer, 15, stunned after his pet hamster Gerbus sneaks into kit bag and travels to a match

A young cricket player found a furry surprise when he opened his kit bag before a match.

Tyler Ivey, 15, from Chilsworthy, on the border of Cornwall, travelled for an hour and a half for an away game as part of Holsworthy Cricket Club’s second team on August 13.

But Tyler soon learnt he had a friendly stowaway packed in his belongings, who had also arrived for the match: his pet hamster Gerbus.

Gerbus, who he has had for over three months, had snuck into his bag as he was preparing to leave as he was cleaning out the pet’s cage.

‘On the morning of the cricket match, I had to get up pretty early to clean out his cage before I went,’ Tyler said.

Tyler Ivey, 15, from Chilsworthy, Cornwall, had no idea his pet hamster Gerbus had snuck into his bag as he travelled an hour and a half for a cricket game

Fellow players ‘were quite surprised’ to see what they first thought was a rat ‘just walking around’

‘I had my bag out on my bed, so I put my hamster on my bed at the same time while I was cleaning his cage. So at that point, he managed to crawl in my kit bag and travel an hour and a half with me.’

He added that he was not the first person who saw Gerbus, but that fellow players ‘were quite surprised’ to see what they first thought was a rat ‘just walking around’.

Shortly after Gerbus was spotted, he received the star treatment after his arduous journey.

‘Luckily one of the opponent’s daughters found a bucket and because it was quite hot, he had loads of cold towels and food,’ Tyler said.

‘He was quite pampered, to be honest, and was loving the attention.’

A tweet about the moment has racked up more than 7,000 likes, which Tyler said is ‘pretty crazy’.

‘I didn’t even know how much attention the tweet got until about Sunday. I was playing Fifa with my mates at the time and my mate Fletcher looked up Twitter and it was at 5,000 likes at that point,’ he said.

‘It was pretty crazy.’