Ellis reluctant to mask concerns
Having suffered a nasty head knock at the bowling crease, former Black Caps allrounder Andrew Ellis isn’t taking any more chances.
Playing his first match of the new season, Ellis turned heads at Palmerston North’s Fitzherbert Park yesterday when he produced a baseball catcher’s mask.
Sure enough he ran in to bowl his medium pacers for Canterbury against Central Stags in the Ford Trophy fully masked, confirmation if any was needed about how bowling in white ball cricket is an increasingly dangerous occupation.
Ellis, 37, who played 15 one-day internationals and five Twenty20 internationals for New Zealand, knows this more than most.
In February 2018 while bowling against Auckland he was struck a sickening blow to the head from a shot by Jeet Raval.
Remarkably, the ball flew for six and Ellis escaped serious injury, but he called on authorities to be more aware of the risks facing bowlers against chunkier bats and an ever-increasing emphasis on power hitting.
‘‘For guys like me who tend to bowl at the death and try to bowl yorkers, it’s probably a prudent move,’’ Ellis told Stuff after the 2018 incident.
‘‘I think it’s a wider discussion for New Zealand Cricket and the Players Association to be proactive about things.’’
Ellis snared 3-68 for Canterbury wearing the mask as the Stags plundered 349-4 off their 50 overs, before rain saw the competition points shared.
Otago fast bowler Warren Barnes unveiled a protective mask in a T20 match in December 2017 that he co-designed with his coach Rob Walter.
It was a mix between baseball visor and a track cyclist’s helmet.
Barnes felt more vulnerable given his distinctive follow-through which saw his head carried low and seemingly more at risk of copping a straight drive.
While batsmen have worn helmets against quick bowlers since the 1970s, wicketkeepers can don protective masks – as first popularised by former Black Cap Peter McGlashan – and Australian umpire Bruce Oxenford dons an armguard at the bowler’s end, Barnes appeared to lead the way for bowlers.
Still, very few other bowlers in top-level cricket around the world have unveiled protective headgear, presumably because of discomfort or distraction from the task at hand.
Nottinghamshire seamer Luke Fletcher suffered a season-ending injury when he was struck on the head by the ball on his followthrough in an English county T20 match in July 2017.
Fletcher was kept in hospital overnight after leaving the pitch with a towel wrapped around his bloodied head.