Two cricketers were hospitalised after a Sunday league match turned into a “mass brawl”.

Police were called to Hainault Recreation Ground, Forest Road, Hainault, when the match between Kothi and Taqwa cricket clubs turned violent.

One Taqwa Cricket Club player, Ahmed Mohammed, was reportedly knocked unconscious during the fracas on the pitch and was one of two people taken to hospital where he stayed overnight.

The two teams were playing in the Gujarati Metropolitan Cricket League (GMCL) in which they are close rivals.

A member of the GMCL committee, who did not want to be named, said: “We have been running the league for 15 years and this is the worst incident ever.

“It started off as verbal, which happens in every game, and the captain should have stopped it, but unfortunately in this instance he didn’t.”

A spokesman for Redbridge police said officers dealt with the incident, but no arrests have been made and no allegations had been made to them. There are no further police inquiries in the matter.

The captain of Taqwa Cricket Club said his players were “completely traumatised” by the incident, and called for the league to take the “strongest action possible” against those involved in the violence.

The GMCL held an emergency committee meeting last week following the fight at 2pm on June 19, and banned a number of players involved pending investigation.

The committee member said: “This kind of behaviour is not tolerated by the league and as a result we banned a number of players while there was a police investigation. We met straight away and made our decision quickly.

“As we are affiliated to the Essex County Cricket Board and the English Cricket Board they could be banned from all cricket clubs in the UK.”

The GMCL was established in 1993 and is one of only eight leagues affiliated to the Essex County Cricket Board.