Buck's Blog: Getting hit
Fri, 15 January 2010
As far as weekends go... I've had better! My first cricket weekend for 2010 was 'Country Round' for Victorian Premier League Cricket and - as 20/20 for the Bushrangers appears to be a no-no for me - I was flying the flag for Essendon out in the bush - great fun I thought. After long debates with teammates and coach, estimations of how far the town of Maryborough is from Melbourne we're still out of whack. Riding shotgun in club legend Craig Berger's car meant I was little use with navigation - and arriving 20 minutes late made for an ominous start. Worst options always surface in such scenarios - we duly lose the toss and are sent in on a greentop - and so I'm first up to bat. After not getting near many in the first three overs - and having to put up with good mate Damien Wright giggling after each ball - I get hit by his fellow opening bowler with a nasty delivery that rears off a length straight into the back of my hand. No-one wants to retire hurt, but off I came to get it looked at. However, I had to wait until Monday to get it x-rayed and sure enough, there was a nasty crack. Three to four weeks off the docs tell me - painful! Got me thinking of nasty blows I've had and seen, though. Getting one from Shaun Tait just above the hip wasn't very nice and I'm still ashamed I squealed as I threw my bat away. But my worst injury was from Taity's teammate Mark Cleary in a county game a few years back when we were both playing as overseas players for county sides - in fact my debut year as a county pro. 'Ice' as Mark is known found rhythm under a dull grey sky and bowled like the wind. The game was being held at an 'out-ground' (not at the main county ground) - and the sightscreens might as well not have been there, they were so small. After getting a golden in the first innings to one I hardly saw, I faced up to Ice in the second and didn't see the first few. About seven balls in he bowled a bouncer that I only picked up when it left the pitch and couldn't do much. It flicked my glove on the way through and went straight between my grill and helmet visor - obviously too far apart - and struck me right in the eye. I hit the deck and threw my helmet off and tried to see out of my damaged eye but there was nothing. Mark had come following through and yelled at me to pull my hand away so he could see the damage. I did and he screamed at me to 'PUT IT BACK IN'!!! I thought my eye had popped out of the socket. I freaked out but it turned out the skin all above my eye had been sliced open and was hanging over my eye. After the bleeding had been stemmed I was driven an hour back to the hospital - and on the way my thumb started throbbing. After eight stitches were used to put my flapping skin back I was sent to get an x-ray on my thumb and of course, it was broken. End of county season just a month in - and sadly back to Oz not long after that. But last season I witnessed Dirk Nannes take a few batsman out. Redback Tom Cooper was hit badly in a one-day game last year - and Warriors Liam Davis and David Bandy were ko'd by Dirky. Bandy even had to remain in a Melbourne hospital and catch the train home after his teammates had flown home. It's never nice to see blood on the wicket and I almost can't bring myself to see the damage after knowing how bad it can be. One of the worse blows I've seen didn't even feature any blood at all - in England when I was playing for Leicestershire against the touring Australian side in 2005. It was Australia's last warm up game before the Ashes so it was a last chance for the players to impress. Brett Lee had stated in the press that he was ready for the bouncers Flintoff and co were going to dish out to him. He was ready to fight fire with fire and was going to use the poor Leicester batsman as his test bunnies. He bowled the fastest spell I've faced and everything was flying through head high. It was as scary as it gets in cricket. We were about eight overs in and 'Binga' had already got a wicket and was bowling at my teammate John Sadler while I watched from the other end. Lee let fly with another short ball but this one didn't get up as high as before. Sads initially tried to get under it but when he saw it wasn't bouncing as much, he tried to sway and consequently brought his back shoulder round towards the ball. The ball cannoned into the moving shoulder with a shocking thud. I can still remember it. Sads tried to bat on but the pain got too much and he went off for tests. A badly broken collarbone was the result and he didn't play for the side for the rest of the season. So while I sit on the sidelines feeling a little sorry for myself, I know that weekends can get a lot worse.
by Chris Rogers, opening batsman for the DEC Bushrangers
