The Daily Telegraph - 19.08.2019

PAU L

HAYWARD

AT LORD’S

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SSSS

A

bad sleeper during

matches, Steve

Smith took a nap in

the dressing room

bath on Friday

afternoon. On

Saturday night he slept much

better, for ominous reasons. The

chilling blow to his neck from a

Jofra Archer bouncer was having a

delayed effect on the world’s best

batsman and his body was forcing

him to rest.

Smith’s non-appearance for the

final day of this compressed, but

dramatic Lord’s Test was a

landmark in cricket injuries. But

not all the reasons were good. As

soon as Australia’s talisman

emerged from his unusually long

slumber to report grogginess and

headaches it was plain he should

take no further part.

That decision, however, could

not hide the dubiousness of his

return to the crease on Saturday

afternoon, 46 minutes after he was

felled by a blow so sickening that

even hardened legends recoiled.

One called it the most violent

impact he had seen in a lifetime of

playing and watching cricket.

Others told anecdotes of having eye

sockets smashed and helmets

battered by deliveries that were

either misjudged or too good to deal

with. Smith’s trauma set off a flow of

reminiscence which showed up the

gulf between what was acceptable

20 or 30 years ago and what we

know now about head injuries: not

just the immediate impact but the

potential long-term costs.

This was a weekend of

unrelenting ferocity, much of it

from the brilliant Archer, who

must have prompted a sigh of relief

across Australia when he finally

put his hat back on for the last time

at 7.13pm, like a Clint Eastwood

bounty hunter. Archer has invaded

Australia’s dreams with his

controlled aggression.

English team sport has stumbled

across an overnight sensation who

could wreak havoc across the

world. He also forced us to think

with renewed intensity about the

game’s most dangerous aspects.

Until Phillip Hughes died five

years ago following a blow to the

neck in the same area where Smith

was hit by Archer, men’s cricket

was stuck in a warp of macho

terminology. A bang to the head

was a test of character. “Weakness”

could not be shown. Bouncers,

“chin music” and balls of fire were

a cult within a game. They still feel

intrinsic to cricket’s appeal.

But the downing of Smith during

Archer’s graduation to the ranks^

of world-class fire-breathers

revealed a lingering disconnect on

player welfare.

Smith passed his concussion test

on Saturday afternoon. Nobody

disputes that. Cricket Australia is

the governing body which pushed

the International Cricket Council

to accept concussion substitutes – a

change that allowed Marnus

Labuschagne to deputise for Smith.

That too is an important detail.

Neither fact though alters the

sense that the decision to allow

Smith to resume his innings on

Saturday was an error: a failure to

think outside the concussion

protocols and consider the

potential cost of sending him

back out.

One risk was that he might face

Archer again – and be hit on the

head or neck a second time.

Another was that Smith might be

emotionally disturbed or in some

kind of shock. The decision

ignored the reality that the “new

Bradman” already had a swollen

arm. Smith’s wish to return, in part

to complete his hundred, became

the determining factor when, as we

now know, Australia’s former

captain was already on a path that

would lead to his health

deteriorating.

Yesterday morning Smith

reviewed the previous 20 hours

and said: “I have declined in the

way I have felt over that time.”

Of his neck he said: “I do have

pain there.” The conclusion is

unavoidable. If a player has been

struck with such force in an

unprotected area, been knocked

off his feet and forced to leave the

field, he or she should take no

further part in that day’s play

whatever the result of a concussion

test, for maximum safety’s sake.

Yesterday morning’s helpful

admission spoke for itself: “Cricket

Australia statistics show that 30

per cent of concussions in

Australian cricket are delayed. It is

not uncommon for players to pass

their tests and feel well on the day

of an injury and then display

symptoms 24-48 hours later.”

A sport that introduces

concussion subs but sends batters

back out after they have been

poleaxed by a missile to an

unguarded part of the neck is

failing to think beyond

bureaucratic box ticking.

How, you might ask, did it take

decades for a sport to see that if a

player is medically concussed it is

reasonable for them to be replaced,

not least to remove the pressure

on them not to leave the team short

on numbers?

The next tussle will be over neck

protectors, or stem guards, created

after the death of Hughes, aged 25.

Smith has said he will now

consider wearing one and Cricket

Australia is expected to make them

compulsory. As the Smith incident

shows, however, old patterns of

thinking are hard to shift, however

much equipment evolves.

As Archer said of Smith: “To see

him go down, everyone stopped

and everyone’s heart skipped a

beat.” It was that kind of weekend:

turbulent, thrilling, scary.

A guilty pleasure, at once

exciting and disquieting.

Where Smith fell, Labuschagne,

his “sub” also hit the deck, his

helmet thumped by another

Archer bouncer that put the

batsman on the floor and brought

the medics scurrying out again.

The battle was hot, but it was

also chilling.

Hard to escape feeling

that batsman should not

have returned to crease

Protocol How concussion

is dealt with in sport

Cricket

The England

and Wales

Cricket Board

has a

mandatory

six-day period

after

concussions,

with a graded

return to play.

Cricket

Australia rules

that players

cannot train or

play for 24

hours after

concussion.

They are then

assessed

continuously,

with a graded

return to play.

Rugby

World Rugby

requires

players to have

a minimum

complete rest

period of a

week before a

graduated

return to play.

The earliest

any player can

return to play

concussion is

three weeks.

Football

Fifa protocol is

that concussed

players should

not return for

six days.

Hockey

Rules vary, but

the earliest a

player can

return to play

in England is

six days.

Dazed: Steve Smith after being hit

GETTY IMAGES

Australia obeyed the

concussion protocols

but Smith looked in

need of more protection

The Daily Telegraph Monday 19 August 2019 ** 5
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