injuryupdate
20-01-2004, 06:54 AM
Taken from the Wisden Cricinfo site:
http://aus.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/JAN/048038_COL-ASKSTEVEN_19JAN2004.html
Author: Steven Lynch
I suppose one of the oddest reasons for missing a Test match belongs to Derek Pringle, the former Essex allrounder who is now the cricket correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. In 1982, he was forced to drop out of the third Test against Pakistan at Headingley after injuring his back, supposedly while writing a letter, although his own version is slightly different:
"My terrible injury was actually pretty mundane. I'd been sorting out envelopes for friends wanting complimentary tickets when I stretched and leant back on my chair, which promptly gave way. The tumble caused my back to spasm between the shoulder-blades, something that had happened to me before, so I knew I'd probably be unable to bowl for 48 hours – the usual time it took to clear up. As it was late, around midnight, I didn't summon the physio but rather attempted a home cure by pulling the mattress off the bed so I could sleep on the floor. Unfortunately this made my back worse and I had to withdraw from the match. I explained all this to the then physio, Bernard Thomas, who injected me with muscle relaxants, but then the Machiavellian little man told the press I'd done my back in writing a letter – presumably his attempt to toughen me up with some cod psychology. As in most cases the truth is duller than the fiction, though I believe Chris Old once pulled a rib muscle before a Test by sneezing, and Tony Greig ricked his neck shaving, the height of the hotel mirror no doubt causing him to perform that most dangerous of manoeuvres – the early-morning stoop."
The year after Pringle's mishap Phil Edmonds had to cry off a Test after hurting his back getting out of his car – his pain wouldn't have been eased when his replacement, Nick Cook, took eight wickets in his first Test and nine in his second, and kept Edmonds out for the rest of that 1983 summer, and the winter tours of New Zealand and Pakistan. And Ted Dexter, the former England captain and chairman of selectors, once ran himself over on the Chiswick Flyover in west London – he was pushing his broken-down car, and lost control of it.
http://aus.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/JAN/048038_COL-ASKSTEVEN_19JAN2004.html
Author: Steven Lynch
I suppose one of the oddest reasons for missing a Test match belongs to Derek Pringle, the former Essex allrounder who is now the cricket correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. In 1982, he was forced to drop out of the third Test against Pakistan at Headingley after injuring his back, supposedly while writing a letter, although his own version is slightly different:
"My terrible injury was actually pretty mundane. I'd been sorting out envelopes for friends wanting complimentary tickets when I stretched and leant back on my chair, which promptly gave way. The tumble caused my back to spasm between the shoulder-blades, something that had happened to me before, so I knew I'd probably be unable to bowl for 48 hours – the usual time it took to clear up. As it was late, around midnight, I didn't summon the physio but rather attempted a home cure by pulling the mattress off the bed so I could sleep on the floor. Unfortunately this made my back worse and I had to withdraw from the match. I explained all this to the then physio, Bernard Thomas, who injected me with muscle relaxants, but then the Machiavellian little man told the press I'd done my back in writing a letter – presumably his attempt to toughen me up with some cod psychology. As in most cases the truth is duller than the fiction, though I believe Chris Old once pulled a rib muscle before a Test by sneezing, and Tony Greig ricked his neck shaving, the height of the hotel mirror no doubt causing him to perform that most dangerous of manoeuvres – the early-morning stoop."
The year after Pringle's mishap Phil Edmonds had to cry off a Test after hurting his back getting out of his car – his pain wouldn't have been eased when his replacement, Nick Cook, took eight wickets in his first Test and nine in his second, and kept Edmonds out for the rest of that 1983 summer, and the winter tours of New Zealand and Pakistan. And Ted Dexter, the former England captain and chairman of selectors, once ran himself over on the Chiswick Flyover in west London – he was pushing his broken-down car, and lost control of it.