Mum’s word in star’s concussion scare
Afghanistan batsman Hashmatullah Shahidi was struck by a short ball that split his batting helmet and ignored medical advice to retire hurt in the Cricket World Cup game against England yesterday.
He said he kept going so his mother wouldn’t be worried if she was watching the game on TV.
Shahidi was on 24 in the 30th over when he took his eye off a short-pitch delivery from England’s Mark Wood and turned his head away as the ball cannoned into his helmet at more than 145km/h.
After getting treated on the field, he asked for a new helmet and continued to score 76 before he was finally out.
His effort couldn’t prevent Afghanistan from losing by 150 runs, but raised more questions about whether the sport can be too lax when it comes to possible concussions.
“One of the reasons I got up so quickly is because my mum is always thinking of me. I lost my father last year so I didn’t want her to hurt,” he said. “My whole family was watching, even my big brother was here in the ground watching. I didn’t want them to be worried for me.”
A doctor and the team’s physio urged him to leave the field, and team official Naveed Sayeh confirmed Shahadi rejected their advice.
“The ICC doctors came to me, and our physios, and my helmet was broken in the middle,” Shahidi said. “They just told me ‘let’s go’. I told them I can’t leave my teammate at that moment. My team needed me, I carried on.”
The 24-year-old batsman later checked in with an International Cricket Council doctor.
“They took care of me and said it will be fine,” he said.
He wasn’t the first Afghan player to be hit on the helmet by a fast, shortpitched delivery at the World Cup.
Star spinner Rashid Khan was bowled without scoring when he was hit by a Lockie Ferguson delivery that jagged back, bounced sharply into him and deflected into the stumps against New Zealand in Afghanistan’s third game. He failed a concussion test and the team doctor later decided it was safer not to send Rashid back on to the field. Rashid hasn’t taken a wicket in two games since.
Concussion has become a major issue in sports, with the NFL setting up a $1 billion compensation scheme and sports such as rugby establishing a rigid, global protocol to deal with such injury cases.