England wicketkeeper Ben Foakes will not be a part of the squad for the two-match Test series against New Zealand next month. He was expected to keep wickets in the absence of Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow. That ship seems to have sailed, at least for now, for he may even miss the first Test of the five-match series against India.
However, more than his absence, it is the reason behind it that has raised eyebrows. Foakes slipped in his socks at The Oval during a county game he played with Sussex against Middlesex last week.
But this is not the first time cricket fans have chuckled in the face of a serious injury. As sadistic as that may sound, we are here to break the shackles and let you know about 10 bizarre cricket injuries of all time. Do not judge us. As readers, you are as much our partners in crime.
1. Jimmy Adams: Everything went downhill for the West Indies on their 1998/99 tour of South Africa. Not only did they lose the Test series 5-0, but also lost several cricketers due to injuries. Adams’ case, however, was a clear winner. On the flight to South Africa, he tried to cut a bread roll open with a plastic spoon but ended up slicing a tendon of the little finger of his left hand. He was ruled out of the entire Test series.
2. Derek Pringle: The 1982 Test series between England and Pakistan were tied 1-1. Ahead of the final Test match, at Headingley, England all-rounder Pringle was assigned the task of sorting out the complimentary passes. In the process, he leaned on the backrest of his chair; to his misfortune, it collapsed and he picked up a shoulder injury.
3. Chris Old: The next entry will genuinely make you scared of sneezing. Old was a fast bowler and hard-hitter with perennial injury issues. To ‘honor’ Old, they named the first bowling machine at Lord’s after him – because it broke down too often. The most ridiculous of these happened when he once sneezed, broke his ribcage, and missed a Test match.
4. Chris Lewis: Old is not the only England fast-bowling all-rounder called Chris on our list. During the 1993/94 tour of the West Indies, Lewis had major reservations about the heat in the Caribbean – so much that he had asked teammate Devon Malcolm to shave his head. Unfortunately, he took the field in the tour match against Antigua XI bareheaded, caught a sunstroke, missed a Test match, and earned the nickname Prat Without a Hat.
5. Arthur Dolphin: Speaking of Lord’s, our next entrant picked up his infamous injury in 1921. Yorkshire wicketkeeper Dolphin was sitting on a chair inside the dressing room before a match against Middlesex. He tried to reach out for his clothes, he fell off the chair, broke his wrist, and was ruled out for the rest of the season.
6. Ian Greig: Ian, the younger brother of Tony, played only two Test matches but scored 8,301 runs in 253 First-class games. In June 1983 (one of the happiest for Indian cricket), he arrived home after Sussex’s County Championship match against Kent. He could not get inside his house due to a problem and decided to climb through an open window. That the idea was bad was validated when he fell a good 18 feet and broke his ankle.
7. Don Topley: Essex seamer Topley’s career had three highlights. First, a one-handed catch of Malcolm Marshall when he put a foot over the boundary rope; accusations of match-fixing against his own club; and his injury. ‘Toppers’ used to work as a postman during the off-season. Once, on the job, he sustained a finger injury as the spring-loaded letterbox snapped back when he tried to put a letter inside.
8. Glenn McGrath: Arguably the most talked-about bizarre cricketing injury of the 21st century – and a turning point in the history of the Ashes. England began the summer of 2005 with a 239-run defeat at Lord’s. Just ahead of the second Test match at Edgbaston, McGrath, hero of Lord’s Test, stepped on a stray ball on the outfield and tore lateral ligaments in his right ankle. As every English fan would fondly recall, the hosts won the second Test by 2 runs and eventually win the Ashes for the first time since 1986/87.
9. Matthew Hayden: Another key member of Australia’s XI would encounter a misfortune ahead of the 2006/07 Ashes. Hayden was recovering from a finger injury when another mishap pushed him back. During one of his routine jogs, he was chased and bit by a street dog and was hospitalized with a 5 cm gash in his ankle. He recovered just in time for the Ashes, which Australia won by a 5-0 sweep at home.
10. Zak Crawley: Foakes is not the only English cricketer to have picked up a freakish injury. Crawley was all set to play the Chennai Test that would begin the day after, which also happened to be his birthday. He slipped on the marble floor, sprained his right wrist, and missed two Test matches.