Near death experiences of G. Watson, Sutcliffe and Patil recalled

Like the cricket fraternity around the world I am in shock hearing about Phil Hughes’ serious injury inflicted at the SCG on Tuesday.

This incident took me back 33 years. It was also on the SCG, the first day of the first Test between Australia and India on January 2, 1981.

The Australian pace battery of Dennis Lillee, Len Pascoe and Rodney Hogg worked overtime and India lost 5/78. The only batsman to offer some resistance was their number six, Sandeep Patil.

He was going well at 65 when a bouncer from Pascoe hit him on his non-helmeted head and rendered him unconscious.

For a frightening few minutes he did not move a muscle and the spectators feared the worst. Carried to the hospital on a stretcher, he survived.

He went on to play an incandescent innings of 174 (including a six and 22 fours) three weeks later in the next Test in Adelaide. Till then it was an Indian’s highest individual score against Australia. It enabled India to draw the Test after they were thrashed by an innings in three days in Sydney.

So there is life and cricket after falling unconscious on a cricket pitch by a fast bouncing delivery. History of cricket is full of batsmen carried on stretchers to hospitals who survived to score more runs.

Australia’s Graeme Watson was struck flush on the jaw by an accidental beamer from Tony Greig during a Rest of the World international in Melbourne in January 1972. The impact broke his nose and his clothing and pads were stained bloody red. The damaged artery led to his requiring 20 litres of blood transfusions at St Vincent’s Hospital.

He was on the critical list for a week. Hospitalised for a month and advised by doctors not to play big time sport again, he was included in Western Australia’s XI a fortnight later and the following month was named in Australia’s 1972 team to tour England under Ian Chappell.

The sight of South African captain Graeme Smith coming out to bat with a broken left hand and a damaged right elbow during the final few overs of the January 2009 Sydney Test to save his country reminds me of another bandaged hero on the MCG in March 1977.

In the Centenary Test against England, Australian opener Rick McCosker’s jaw was broken by speedster Bob Willis. Despite this, Rick came out to bat in the second innings at number 10, looking like an astronaut walking on space – his jaw wired, face swollen and heavily bandaged. He batted for more than an hour, adding 54 runs. As Australia won by 45 runs, this partnership was crucial.

During the tour of West Indies in 1962, India’s captain Nari Contractor received a near fatal injury from a quick short delivery from Charlie ‘Chucker’ Griffith in the match against Barbados. Two operations were performed in West Indies and one later in India when a steel plate was inserted on the injured skull. A few years later he played first-class matches but his Test career was cruelly aborted. He is alive 58 years later aged 80.

The Lord’s Test between England and West Indies in June 1963 has gone down as one of the most exciting in history. Any result, including a tie, was possible as the last ball from Wes Hall was about to be bowled. Needing 234 to win, England were 9/228 when David Allen was joined by Colin Cowdrey with his fractured left arm in plaster. He had intended to bat left-handed but Allen blocked the last ball and the Test was drawn.

In the fourth Test against Australia at Brisbane in February 1933, England’s Eddie Paynter developed tonsillitis with high temperature and was hospitalised. But with England struggling at 5/198, ruthless captain Douglas Jardine sent a player to smuggle Paynter out from the hospital. He scored a gritty 83 in the first innings and in the second hit a six which won England the Test and enabled them to regain the Ashes.

I realise that Phil Hughes’ injury is more critical than some instances cited above but as long as there is life there are runs. Ask New Zealand left-hander Bert Sutcliffe.

In the Johannesburg Test against South Africa in December 1953, Sutcliffe was hit on the head by a bouncer from Neil Adcock, the Transvaal terror. The crack was heard all over the ground and many thought he was dead.

He fainted on his way to the hospital, bleeding profusely. With New Zealand at 6/82, he insisted on returning to the match. He scored a heroic 80 from 106 in 112 minutes, hitting seven sixes, his second six saving a follow-on.