Tragedies and Injuries in Cricket: When hostility took over the Gentleman’s Game
- In LifeStyle & Sports
- 08:13 PM, Nov 27, 2016
- Shwetank Bhushan
Two years back, on this one of the saddest days of world cricket we lost a very fine cricketer Phil Hughes, who succumbed to the injury from an unexpected bouncer. Terrible it was…just terrible.. And reminds me of several moments from the dangerous cricketing past.
First Raman Lamba, who was an Indian batsman of repute. On February 20, 1998, in a Dhaka Premier League match, Lamba was fielding against Mohammedan Sporting at the Bangabandhu Stadium. Khaled Mashud was captaining in the absence of the regular captain, brought on the left-arm spinner, and after three balls he looked around and summoned Raman from the outfield to go to stand at the forward short-leg. Mashud also asked him if he wanted a helmet, but Lamba said that "it was just three balls so no problem."
The delivery from Saifullah was short, Mehrab Hossain pulled it hard, and hitting Lamba in the forehead with such force it rebounded beyond the wicketkeeper, who backpedaled to take the catch. Mehrab was out; Raman was lying on the ground."
Lamba got up and unassisted and slowly walked back to the dressing room. After a few minutes, Raman asked his team management that he felt unwell and was immediately rushed to the hospital. Their Raman had lost consciousness he had suffered convulsions; surgeons operated to a remove the blood clot from the left side of his brain. A specialist was flown in from Delhi but returned saying there was no hope of recovery. Three days later, Lamba's life support was turned off with the approval of his family. His wife, Kim, who had flown in from Delhi to be with him was at his bedside along with their five-year-old son and three-year daughter.
Raman Lamba
And then the face of Gavaskar flashed before my eyes; who faced the most fearsome bowlers in history without a helmet. God, that 1976 Kingston test match between India and West Indies ... 9 of 11 Indians landed in the hospital. No... it started a series before, wait; it's time for a total recall.
The two most fearsome test series that were played in the recent history of cricket happened after my birth. West Indies tour of Australia in 1975/76 and India's tour of West Indies in 1976. But I can't proceed on this subject without mentioning one of the finest, very dangerously entertaining and certainly the most controversial Test series ever played.
The cricketing world knows it as The Bodyline series. No other cricketing confrontation has provoked such controversy or inspired such literature. Bodyline bowling had existed even before Jardine ever unleashed Larwood upon Australian batsmen, but the difference was Larwood's speed with accuracy.
Sometimes it is forgotten how good Woodfull's Australian side was who had the genius called Don Bradman, whose presence ensured that, effectively, Australia pitted 12 players against the opposition's 11.
Amidst the controversy in the first of 5 tests, Sir Don Bradman was absent, and England won. The second Test Australia won, courtesy a timely century from Bradman and ten wickets haul from O'Reilly. At that point, the series was tied at one win apiece.
A simmering pot came to the boil in the third Test at Adelaide which England won by 338 runs. Wisden recorded it as perhaps the "most unpleasant Test ever played." Jardine's challenge was to reduce Bradman to a mere mortal status and eventually the game would revert to the traditional 11 vs. 11. Larwood with his lethal pace and deadly accuracy did it for Jardine. By god he did it.
Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures and Bradman adapted his method. Just as England attacked him, so he attacked England. But Bradman realized that sooner or later a ball would arrive that had written his name on it and with that continued thought the genius only half succeeded. Cricketing success is often relative and bringing down Bradman to the level of Hammond's performance constituted another victory for England.
Bodyline as a tactic was used relatively sparingly; England won the series 4-1 with an unpleasant tactic they adopted knowing their arsenal had that pace and accuracy.
West Indies humiliated in Australia - 1975-76
With Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee on one side and Andy Roberts and Michael Holding on the other, it was a trial of strength between the two best cricketing sides of that time. Since in June 1975 West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs at Lord's in the World Cup Final, this series was highly anticipated.
As it happened, West Indies and Australia each won one of the first two Tests. Man to man both teams looked even. But once again the difference lay in pace and more importantly the accuracy. In the third Test, both Lillee and Thomson were at their fierce best. After Alvin Kallicharran had been hit in the face from Lillee, the West Indian batsmen were completely intimidated.
Thomson - Kalicharan - Lillee
West Indies were done in for the remaining series by the furious pace of Thomson and Lillee who took 56 wickets between them in the series. West Indians were broken in body and spirit by their dangerous pace bowling, by biased umpiring and also by an exceptionally hostile crowd that never lost a chance to heap abuse on the visitors. "We were young, inexperienced, thrust into international cricket, and we went out, and all we could hear screaming into our ears was "Lillee! Lillee! Kill! Kill! Kill!" - notes Gordon Greenidge.
Greg Chapell's side easily won the series 5-1.
1976: Massacre at Sabina Park
Bruised, beaten, and humiliated, the West Indies captain Clive Lloyd said, "Never again." He was now convinced that the shortest route to success was finding an army of vicious pace bowlers. And that's what he did. He already had Andy Roberts, Michael Holding. He would add Colin Croft, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall to his arsenal in the days to come.
Garner, Croft, Roberts, Marshall & Holding
After a hammering in the Barbados Test, India's batsmen bounced back in Port of Spain. In the drawn Test, Gavaskar made 156 giving India a 161-run lead and their confidence was high. In the third Test, India was given a target of 403, and a win would have caused a world record chase. With hundreds from both Gavaskar and Vishwanath and a gutsy 85 from Mohinder Amarnath, India chased the monstrous target resulting in India's greatest Test victory till the trio of Laxman, Dravid and Harbhajan mesmerized Aussies in Kolkata.
As the Jamaica Test got underway, Gavaskar and Anshuman Gaekwad took India to 98 without any loss, on a fresh, bouncy wicket. Lloyd and West Indies' desperation had reached its tipping point.
The Jamaican mob bayed for Indian blood with the racial taunts that Gavaskar mentioned in his book, 'Sunny Days.' After lunch, Lloyd unleashed the new era in West Indian cricket: of the fast, nasty, life-threatening kind, stretching the laws of cricket to their limit. Michael Holding bowled three bouncers in an over to Gaekwad, followed by another four and also a beamer to Gavaskar in his next. The crowd loved it. They wanted blood. More beamers followed. Holding pretended the ball kept slipping out of his hand.
Gavaskar somehow scored 66 before being cleaned up by a Holding yorker. Gaekwad batted a day and a half for a brave 81, taking several body blows and had to eventually retire hurt after being hit behind the left ear by the new ball. It happened after Vishwanath had to visit the hospital with a broken finger trying to save his face from a vicious Holding bouncer. Soon, Brijesh Patel's upper lip was cut open by Holder. The Indian captain Bishen Singh Bedi declared the innings at 306-6 fearing injury to bowlers. West Indies racked up 391. Unfortunately, B Chandrashekhar also injured a finger while Bedi aggravated his injury trying to catch Viv Richards off his own bowling.
India's annihilation in the Test was complete. With Mohinder Amarnath's brave sixty, even before they reached a total of 100, Bedi decided they had enough of the life-threatening stuff. With a token lead of only 12 runs, he declared. India's astonishing second innings scorecard read:
Gavaskar c Julien b Holding 2
Vengsarkar lbw b Jumadeen 21
Amarnath st Murray b Jumadeen 60
Madan Lal b Holding 8
Venkataraghavan b Holding 0
Kirmani not out 0
Gaekwad absent hurt
Viswanath absent hurt
Patel absent hurt
Bedi absent hurt
Chandrasekhar absent hurt
Extras (nb 6) 6
Total (all out, 26.2 overs) 97
West Indies took India's declaration as surrender, and in the second over, chased down the 13 they needed to win the game and also the series. Whenever India play at the Sabina Park, it is important to recall the Test-series of 1976 which marked the lowest point in their cricketing relations with West Indies.
But sport is a sport, and by definition, is an activity that involves physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against each other for public entertainment. That entertainment while competing is the key. Cricket may be a dangerous game. But then think of Football, Rugby, Hockey, or as a matter of fact Wrestling and Boxing.
While Sunny Gavaskar and Don Bradman were fortunate, Phil Hughes and Raman Lamba were not. But the biggest adventure these cricketing heroes took is that they lived the life of their dreams and entertained us all and will be remembered till Cricket is played on this planet.
Being dangerous is not the danger for cricket, the real danger for this sport are those who are "playing with this sport" very dangerously.
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