Cricket Can Be Dangerous

I've been playing this sport for nearly 6 years now. I've been hit on the head by a bowler with a very hard ball, albeit whilst wearing a helmet. I've slid on the ground trying to dive to get in and cut my arm open. I've torn a hamstring and then went on to get a 100. Cricket is seen by many as a largely boring and uneventful sport, where players stop for a cup of tea after a couple of hours and then start again. Players in white clothing, chasing a small red ball to the boundary edge, and repeat. But every now and then, it can get pretty messy...

A couple of years ago, I witnessed a player break his leg on a cricket pitch whilst fielding a ball that was slowly approaching him. It was innocuous at best, as he went down and then stayed down, without any hint of anguish, and announced to the vicinity that he had broken his leg. Sure enough, after walking over, (no rush), I saw his left leg hanging in a weird looking direction. We opened the white gate of our club to let the ambulance in. I imagined this was the last time I would see an ambulance on a cricket pitch.

Oh, how wrong I was.

After Saturday's game was called off after 10 overs due to rain, we approached Sunday's game as our only opportunity of the weekend to impose ourselves on a division that we have hardly set alight this season. It was a tough game, away to Henlow, who had already beaten us once this season, and had managed to hit a mammoth 280 in their victory the week before. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed beforehand as I lost the toss (naturally), and we were put into field. After a comfortable enough first 20 overs, where Henlow had reached 88-2, (after two pretty good catches from yours truly), they then went on the rampage. Punishing terribly bad bowling, they managed to amass another 120 odd runs in the first 11 overs after the drinks break. (They finished on 308 - but I didn't see the final 8 overs for reasons you are about to find out...) As captain, I had pushed the field back to try and stem the flow of runs, although I had found myself at a pretty normal position, closer to the wicket than the majority of my teammates, who were patrolling the boundaries attempting to stem the flow of runs. It was the 32nd over when their batsman, (already way past 50 off an impossibly low number of balls), skied one high into the blue sky. I back-peddled, high in confidence after my two good catches earlier, and attempted to position myself to take a comfortable catch. However, I couldn't quite get back quick enough as the ball just sailed over my head. Now, for some reason I decided to leap backwards and attempt to take a ridiculous one-handed grab over my shoulder. If I had taken it, it would have been the most outrageous catch in cricket history. I didn't catch it. And what's more, I had over-rotated. I had a brief thought of, "Oh shit", before my head crashed into the hard ground below me and my neck went with it, and then the rest of my weight followed on top. I knew those takeaways had been a bad idea...

Ouch.

Severely winded, and in a fair amount of pain, I remember seeing a lot of stars and a pain down my back as I lay completely totalled on the green, green grass of Henlow Cricket Club. Part of me expected to just get back up and run it off, holding my arms up to get air back into my lungs after being winded. Almost like being hit in the stomach very hard by a football. But I couldn't move. I genuinely lay there trying to get up, and my head and neck felt like it was being held down by a tonne of bricks. Is this serious?

Before I knew it, I had many players stood over me, and as I looked up at them, I could only see outlines of people, struggling to make out individuals amongst the stars and the glare of the sunshine which was shining right in my eyes in the position I had landed. I would have moved to avoid it, but I couldn't. At this point, I realised that:

A) My game was definitely over.

And B) I might be in a bit of trouble here...

I think that's what everyone else thought aswell. I overheard that someone had called an ambulance. I just lay there with my eyes closed. "Just relax, this ain't as serious as everyone is making out". I then starting singing R Kelly 'Ignition' in my head, as people gesticulated around me to tell me to keep talking and communicating. I wasn't really interested in that. I just wanted to imagine being on stage in front of thousands of obeying fans as I sang 'Ignition' and a few other songs in my head that happened to be on my iPod playlist from pre-drinks the night before.

It was an awfully long wait. I still couldn't move, and my attempts at trying to were quickly stopped by the surrounding few who hadn't buggered off for an early tea break. The back of my head hurt from where I had landed, and it was probably about 40 minutes until the paramedic turned up. I remember thinking how I was going to go to hospital in the back of an estate car, but then he called for a "proper" ambulance and after another half an hour, I was in the back of it, strapped to a spinal board with a brace around my neck. It certainly looked far worse than it actually was. As Saggers proved as he then proceeded to take pictures to put on Facebook. Muppet!

I'm fine though. I spent a lot of time on that spinal board, which inadvertently makes the pain in your back worse, and then went to a very chilly X-Ray room and found out there was no permanent or serious damage, and then I was allowed to go home, albeit with quite bad back and neck ache. Then I went to the pub! Only me...

It was quite a scary experience though. For an hour or so, I thought I was in big trouble, but it soon occurred to me that I wasn't, as I began joking around with the paramedics, and Saggers who had kindly accompanied me to the hospital, even if he was documenting it on social media! The staff at Lister Hospital in Stevenage, (the closest one to us at the time) were also absolutely superb and as hospital visits go, that was certainly the most comfortable and almost uncomfortable. Comfortable in terms of being paid attention to, and uncomfortable for obvious reasons.

Waking up this morning was pretty difficult as my back refused to function for half an hour, but I should be able to play this weekend. Quite a turnaround if you saw the pictures and nothing else, (one absent teammate thought I was literally dead!)

What is it with me and weekends? Always a story...