Bizarre and violent games of cricket

by A. C. de Silva

CRICKET: In the game of cricket there has been many interesting incidents that people keep talking about, even after many years have passed. The game has been popular down the years. The game has been popular on the beach front and in gardens bowlers are seen tossing the ball up with either hand.

Test cricket takes pride of place, but there has been some very interesting incidents outside the Test scene that have caught the eye of the cricket lovers. For example in 1954, playing for Pakistan versus Somerset at Taunton, the usually right-armed Hanif Mohammad decided to try each arm in the same over and took a wicket with a left-arm delivery.

Then in the distant past in 1872, in a school match abroad between Harrow School and Butterflies, W. Yardley playing for the latter school, bowled alternately with his right and left-arm and took five wickets.

The game of cricket has been very popular ever since it was introduced into this world and in the not too distant past in 1983 S. M. H. Kirmani's offering in the fifth Test between India and the West Indies was not only brief but in a technical sense non-existant.

With the West Indies needing one run for victory, the Indian wicket wicketkeeper Kirmani came on and bowled a no-ball.

The moving finger in the scorebox was said to have dropped its pencil at that juncture and scratched its puzzled head. What to write? Did Kirmani bowl or didn't he?

It later emerged that Kirmani had delivered one legal ball before the no-ball, and so the scorers in fact had been less confused than the journalists.

Everyone a coconut

In 1934 a 13-year-old boy played havoc among the coconuts at the fairground in Newport, Isle of Wight. Instead of throwing the ball like a fielder returning it to the stumps, his shies were 'bowled', complete with run-up and action heavily modelled on Harold Lawood. So accurate was he, almost every ball dislodged a coconut.

Word spread round the fairground and soon he was being commissioned by strangers to bowl on their behalf.

Eventually the stall-holder, faced with a near-empty sack, had to bar the boy - but only after he had knocked down 87 fruit of the palm.

Four down with one delivery!

A fractured skull was one of the several extraordinary circumstances leading to a sequence of dismissals which is probably unique in the history of the game.

The match was played in London over two Saturday afternoons, and at close of play on the first day the batting side had lost six wickets.

On the following Saturday afternoon one of the not-out batsmen boarded the bus going to Kennington when he should have been heading for Kensington.

He did not arrive at the ground in time to resume his innings and was ruled out by the umpire. One wicket had thus fallen without a ball being bowled.

The first ball of the day was a no-ball which the batsman struck towards mid-on set off for a run. The fielder stopped and returned the ball smartly and the batsman was run out. That made two wickets down on the day (eight in total) without a ball being bowled.

The next ball was driven hard and straight, hitting the batsman's partner on the head, from which it rebounded and the striker was caught. Also enroute for the pavilion was the non-striking batsman, who had suffered a fractured skull.

Four men, effectively, were out and only one ball had been bowled. With nine wickets now down overall, the last man arrived at the crease but was ruled out as there was no-one left to bat with him.

A six off the head!

From the batsman's point of view such mishaps can bring unexpected dividends. In August 1970, Christ Taylor playing for the Lancashire Club Moorside against Uppermill, strike the ball hard and high.

A fielder dashed along the edge of the boundary to try and catch it but misjudged his charge.

The ball hit him on the head and rebounded into the pavilion for a six; had the fielder missed it altogether, the batsman would only have got four.