Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Learn from experience' that was published in Newsband

Learn from experience

Australia’s Phil Hughes had lost his life last November after being hit on the head by a short ball.  20-year-old Ankit Keshri, the former captain of the Bengal under-19 team, had also died after colliding with a teammate while attempting to take a catch during a Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) Division-I match between East Bengal and Bhowanipore.

A significant development was the review of protective equipment: the modern-day batsman and close-in fielder seem so well-armoured that fatalities on the field of play appear inconceivable, but the accident forced equipment manufacturers and cricketers to innovate and evolve; during the recent World Cup, helmet designs that better protected the back of the head and the neck were seen.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India must be similarly considerate and proactive. It has asked the CAB to investigate whether Keshri’s death was the result of negligence or lack of facilities.

Danger/ Risk being inherent to any sport needs prime focus here. Incidents like these can happen in any sport and are happening. Immediate actions will have to be initiated to hopefully completely stop such incidents from happening.

A global sports body has to be constituted to advocate and enforce safety across all sports. And this global committee has to be funded by governing bodies of all sports.

Cricketers need to be aware of the safety measures that they need to take while on field. Losing a game is part and parcel of the sport but these couple of incidents in this day and age makes one revisit the safety standards for players and most definitely timely intervention seems only hope when players are putting their bodies through high rigours of activities.

There have been too many fatalities that too in gentlemen game like cricket. It can be reasonable had it happened in combats like boxing or wrestling or other fight games, but surprisingly it is happening in cricket where the fatalities can be avoided. Sportsmen should take care of themselves while on field. It is high time for cricket administrators and authorities to take able methods to tackle on field injuries along with process and guidelines must be set and followed at any level. Also cricketing fraternity must support both in terms of financial and emotional to the affected ones to recuperate and bounce back to show sporting prowess.

Physical collisions are random incidents. It is unfortunate that a cricketer should lose his life in this manner. Timely and effective medical intervention could save lives. What is of more serious concern is the way cricket is played. Cricket will become safe only if the game is played as a game and not as a war, as the Australians do. Despite losing one of their men to over-aggression, the Australians have not learnt any lessons. It is a pity that other cricketing nations are also trying to overdo the bodyline bowling.

Cricket in India now seems to have penetrated so much to the lowest village levels that the science and arts of the game need to be studied in more details and some of these freak accidents (resulting in loss of life) expose certain mistakes on safety or science of the game; both stand to be corrected

Unfortunate death of Ankit Keshri is a warning signal which cannot be ignored. Question is whether in all playgrounds, adequate infrastructure and facilities exist to provide emergency medical aid to an injured player. All sports bodies should take steps to ensure that no player loses life on account of non-availability of emergency medical help.

Deaths in the playing fields, however tragic it is, appear to take place though may be few and far between. Millions view from the safety of their homes, especially cricket. Thousands view in the field itself. Protection has to be given to both the viewers as well as the players. Attention appears to be protect the players, for they are directly involved, more than the viewers. Viewers too need lot more attention than is being paid now. Balls can and do cross the periphery and hit anybody anywhere. Apparently with the shrinking of the duration of play and enhancing targets, the hitters have the day and viewers are at the receiving end some fatal but all injurious.

Can anyone include the plight of the poor straight umpire, especially in the ODI and T20 formats. Powerful hits by batsmen can really harm and cause grave danger to the straight umpire. He does not have much reaction time as he has to look for bowler overstepping and LBW decisions.