Cricket chiefs failing to protect players over concussion
Former Australia doctor leads calls for change Demands for substitutes and rugby-style protocol
Cricketers are being put at risk because the sport is failing to protect them adequately from concussion, the former Australian team doctor has warned.
Peter Brukner, who worked with Australia from 2012 to 2017 and previously with Liverpool FC, said that cricket needed to introduce a rugby-style head-injury assessment, and that it was unacceptable that only three national teams had full-time team doctors.
“International cricket has been slow to react to concussion, and there is far more that could be done to reduce risks,” Brukner said. “There is a worrying divergence in how seriously countries take concussion, and, ultimately, this endangers players.”
Brukner highlighted three main areas to address – concussion substitutes being prohibited in international cricket, the need for a standard head-injury assessment and the lack of full-time team doctors among most Test nations.
Last year, there were at least three cases of cricketers playing on in Test matches despite possible signs of concussion. A common factor in all three – affecting Pakistan’s Ahmed Shehzad, Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim and Sri Lanka’s Sadeera Samarawickrama – was that the teams did not have their own doctors.
“The International Cricket Council should mandate that, in all international cricket, there is a team doctor,” Brukner said. It was unacceptable, he claimed, that only Australia, England and South Africa (whose manager fills the role) had full-time team doctors, although New Zealand have emergency paramedics at games. “This shows that other nations are failing to do enough to protect their players,” Brukner said.
In a Test in December 2016, Brukner had to conduct concussion tests on Pakistan’s Azhar Ali when he was struck on the head. “I was put in a very uncomfortable position,” he said. “Clearly, there was a perception of conflict of interest because if I had ruled him out of the match, that would have benefited Australia.” Ali eventually decided he was fit enough to return. In a similar situation, Rahim defied medical advice from South Africa’s doctor by batting on in a Test three months ago.
A standard head-injury assessment would be “a significant step to keep players safe”, Brukner said. He also believes that “concussion substitutes would encourage players to get the support they need during matches, and be honest about what they are experiencing without feeling like they are letting their teammates down”.
While concussion remains predominantly a concern for batsmen, highlighted by the short bowling from Australia during the Ashes series, there are growing fears that bowlers and umpires are vulnerable because of power hitting in Twenty20 cricket.
In the past fortnight, New Zealand bowler Warren Barnes has started wearing a face mask – which is permitted under ICC rules – while bowling in T20 matches because of fears of being hit by straight drives. Last summer, Nottinghamshire bowler Luke Fletcher suffered a brutal blow to his head from a straight drive in his follow
‘There is a worrying divergence in how seriously countries take it. This endangers players’
through, which ruled him out of the past two months of the season.
An umpire was killed in a match in Israel in 2014 after being struck on the neck by a straight drive. In T20, non-striking batsmen, who often back up by several yards, can also be in danger.
“Cricket is lagging behind many of the other professional sports on concussion,” said Tony Irish, the executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations. He called for “a more centralised approach” to concussion, and for the ICC to “establish a science-based protocol for the game at international level” that could be mirrored at domestic level.
Dr Peter Theobald, a specialist in brain injuries in sport at Cardiff University, agreed that cricket had ground to make up. As there was no standard head-injury assessment, Theobald believed that cricketers were particularly vulnerable to “second impacts” – a second concussion when a player continues to play on after an initial concussion.
“Without there being a formalised protocol to systematically attempt to identify cases of concussion within cricket, then players would seem to be at unnecessary risk,” Theobald said.
The ICC formed a medical committee last year, which is monitoring the threat of concussion. From last October, the ICC approved a two-year trial of concussion substitutes in first-class cricket – though not the international game – around the world, after Cricket Australia’s earlier attempts to get the move approved in 2016 had been rejected.
Concussion substitutes are now allowed in Australia’s first-class competition, and will be permitted in all three formats in the domestic game in England this year. In Australia, concussed players can only be replaced by a “like-for-like” replacement, as judged by the match referee, so cannot be used to gain a tactical advantage.
So far, only Australia and England have agreed to concussion substitutes in domestic first-class cricket.
Brukner said that “the laws of the game should be amended immediately to explicitly allow for concussion substitutes”. The laws of the game, governed by the MCC, state that “a substitute still cannot bowl, bat or act as captain”, though an exemption was agreed for the two-year trial in domestic first-class cricket.
“The principal difficulties with concussion are around the diagnosis, especially below the top level, where trained experts are unlikely to be present, and in the mechanics of selecting a suitable replacement,” said Fraser Stewart, the MCC laws manager. “Unlike most other sports, the distinct differences between the types of player means that finding a like-for-like replacement is not straightforward.”
The MCC will discuss concussion during the next World Cricket Committee meeting, in Sydney after the final Ashes
Test.
Knockout blows How players have been affected on pitch