Not since the legendary Shane Warne's shipping of cartons of canned baked beans to India and English players throwing jelly beans at the batting crease, has the humble bean made its presence felt in the world of cricket as it did during Thursday's Ashes 2.0 clash between Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
No, it has nothing to do with someone spilling the proverbial beans on the dressing-room chit chat or some player getting gassy with extreme fondness for the kidney-shaped seed.
It has everything to do with a British character, who famously goes by the name of Mr Bean, and his lookalike hailing from Pakistan and the latter's adventures in Africa.
To cut the story short, Pak Bean (Yes! That's what he calls himself) had plonked himself in Zimbabwe in 2016 after claiming that the real Mr Bean would grace an agricultural event for which tickets were then sold.
The Pak Bean even got police protection and did a roadshow too. Not to mention innumerable selfies with fans who must have thought, well, a copy is still better than nothing.
Smarting from being duped by a duplicate of a comic act, Zimbabwe vowed revenge. "You gave us that fraud Pak Bean instead of Mr Bean Rowan... We will settle the matter tomorrow," tweeted one Zimbabwean fan, Ngugi Chusara (who might soon be considered for the 'Zimbabwe Ratna' award after his tweet went viral).
"Just pray the rains will save you," he had added for an ominous effect just in case Babar Azam and Co. had taken the simmering Pak Bean issue lightly.
It was no laughing matter.
Don't take sports and its rivalries lightly, my fellow cricket lovers. Zimbabwe had every right to prepare for the match on a war footing. You don't insult a country with a fake Mr Bean and that too, a Pak Bean, and expect to get away with it.
Why 'cheat' Zimbabwe? Just because the IMF gave less? Because the land-locked African nation has no blue water navy to cross the Arabian sea? Because the 'better-than Kohli' Babar now has a moniker Zimbabar? Was Pak Bean a revenge for all that - in advance?
These serious questions had to be answered lest the Pakistan-Zimbabwe issue took the attention away from the Russia-Ukraine war.
Anyway, coming back to the match, Zimbabwe got their revenge. They beat Pakistan in a last-ball finish. What would have been fitting was to see Zimbabweans act like 11 Mr Beans on the field to celebrate and rub it in. The point of reference here is obviously Sri Lankan players' victorious snake dance after defeating Bangladesh.
However, to misquote Michelle Obama, Zimbabweans took the high road, when Pakistan went low with Pak Bean.
Put yourself in the shoes of Zimbabweans and try taking a high road after you have been duped by a duplicate of a comic act. It is not easy to become the butt of jokes and then rise like a phoenix from the ashes of sniggers following a fraud by a healthier and obviously fake Mr (Pak) Bean.
After the match, the Zimbabwe President tweeted and told Pakistan to send the real Mr Bean next time. The Pakistan Prime Minister replied, "We may not have the real Mr Bean but we have fighting spirit."
And in a gesture that may lead to humanity breathing a sigh of relief, the PM extended an olive branch, letting the white pigeon free with, "Mr President: Congratulations. Your team played really well today."
Looking back, this must be singularly the most hilarious revenge drama in sports ever. As any polymathic Bollywood fan would say, "This story has drama, tragedy, comedy, action, emotion, revenge..."
Even PG Wodehouse, for all the 'sunlit perfection' he was able to summon, would have struggled to come up with a plot like this. And 'Plum' has written extensively on cricket. It would have been so delightful to read what the celebrated writer's take on the whole Pak Bean issue would have been.
"Do you like cricket better than the footer?" Wodehouse is said to have famously asked. He might have as well asked Zimbabwe, "Do you like Pak Bean better than the Mr Bean?" And added a slight chuckle as Jeeves cleared his throat in protest.
Ladies and gentleman, the curious case of Pak Bean then is for posterity. Decades and centuries later, when cricket fans will blow the dust off the annals of cricket in 21st century, they will read about the great fiasco of Pak Bean and the rivalry it created.
And how would the real Mr Bean react to this whole episode?
Given his responses to all that's important on Mother Earth, the English comic legend, will put the British stiff upper lip into action, and with an erudition that might give Shashi Tharoor an inferiority complex, wrap the whole issue in a nutshell with a mouthful and a throaty..."Bob!"