The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

T

here were only nine days

between the end of South

Africa’s campaign at the

Under-19 Cricket World Cup

and the Indian Premier League

mega-auction. The iron was hot

and Dewald Brevis struck, in a

potentially life-changing

away, aged only 18.

South Africa finished

seventh at the World Cup,

but Brevis had a brilliant

tournament. He scored 506

runs in six innings — only

one other batsman passed

300 — with centuries

against Uganda and

Bangladesh, nineties

against Ireland and

England, and 65

against India.

He was also

a frontline bowler

for his team,

taking seven wickets

with his leg spin.

Mumbai Indians

are the heavyweights of the IPL,

with five titles to their name. Rohit

Sharma, the India Test captain,

also leads Mumbai, while West

Indies’ Kieron Pollard is their

all-rounder and Jasprit Bumrah

their star bowler.

In the mega-auction two months

ago, Mumbai bought Brevis and

after sitting out the first two

matches, on Wednesday

he replaced Singapore’s

Tim David, who

was purchased

for almost three

times Brevis’s price.

Coming in at

No 3, Brevis hit

his second ball for

four and was quickly

on to 29 off 15, wristily

smashing Varun

Chakravarthy for a no-look

six over mid-wicket before being

stumped four balls later.

It reminded fans of AB de Villiers,

the South Africa great to whom

Brevis is often compared. The

protégé has even asked the master

for permission to wear the same

No 17 jersey, and messages

De Villiers for advice after meeting

him at school and taking a punt on

asking him for his phone number.

Brevis’s stand came after Rohit

had scratched three off 12 and Ishan

Kishan had gone at slower than a

run a ball during the powerplay. It

was only a cameo, but cameos build

short-form careers, and Brevis has

time on his side.

THE NEXT

BIG THING

Dewald Brevis

6 Born on April 29, 2003

6 Nicknamed “Baby AB”

for similarities to his

compatriot AB de Villiers

6 Player of the

tournament at the 2022

Under-19 World Cup,

scoring 506 runs at

average of 84.3

6 Signed by Mumbai

Indians for about

£300,000 in Indian

Premier League auction

Elgan Alderman

138

Brevis’s top score, from

130 balls, during the

Under-19 Cricket World

Cup, against Bangladesh

FROM THE ARCHIVES

A look back at some of the greatest moments in sporting history

N

ari Contractor’s Test

career could not be saved

by a titanium plate in his

head, but it has helped

the 88-year-old to live a

long life. Sixty years on, the plate was

removed this week. It was inserted

after Contractor’s skull was fractured

by Charlie Griffith. Doctors advised

it should be taken out to militate

against future infection, due to

degeneration of the skin.

Contractor was the captain of

India, opening the batting in the

second Test against West Indies at

Sabina Park, Kingston, in March

1962. The match started on his 28th
      birthday and five days later ended
      with an innings defeat. It was the last
      of his 31 Tests.
      Five days after that loss,
      Contractor was batting in
      Bridgetown in a tour match. The
      Barbados XI featured nine Test
      cricketers past, present or future.
      Wes Hall and Griffith, abetted by
      George Rock, were fast bowlers who
      struck fear into batsmen.
      Griffith bowled five balls to
      Contractor after lunch on the second
      day: the first whistled past his nose;
      the last zeroed into his head. The
      story goes that Contractor was
      distracted by three things in that
      over: Rusi Surti, his partner, telling
      him Griffith was chucking; a dropped
      catch at short leg off the fourth ball;
      and someone opening a window in
      the dressing room during the fifth.
      Contractor was helped from the
      field, retired hurt, but there was no
      initial cause for alarm. His condition
      deteriorated and he was found to
      have a crack in his skull, with a blood
      clot pressing on his brain and
      causing paralysis.
      Two emergency operations
      followed, the first by a local surgeon,
      the second by a specialist rushed
      from Trinidad. Four cricketers —
      Chandu Borde, Bapu Nadkarni and
      Polly Umrigar from India, Frank
      Worrell from West Indies — donated
      blood. Contractor’s wife flew to be at

her husband’s bedside and a public

fund sought to raise £760 to cover his

medical bills.

Vijay Manjrekar retired hurt too,

hit on the nose by Griffith, as the

tourists were skittled for 86.

Manjrekar recovered to score a

century in the follow-on, an innings

in which the Indians had only

eight fit batsmen — Umrigar had

fibrositis and Erapalli Prasanna an

injured foot.

Nawab of Pataudi took over the

captaincy for the remainder of the

Test series, which India lost 5-0.

“A nasty accident to Contractor, the

captain and opening batsman,

halfway through the tour, had the

team in a state of shock, anxiety and

extreme unhappiness,” Wisden

Cricketers’ Almanack wrote.

“What most of the outside world

heard about the incident was that

Contractor was struck through

ducking to a ball delivered by

Charles Griffith, which never rose

beyond the height of the stumps.

“Contractor did not duck into the

ball. He got behind it to play at it —

he probably wanted to fend it away

towards short leg — but could not

judge the height to which it would

fly, bent back from the waist in a

desperate, split-second attempt to

avoid it and was hit just above the

right ear.

“A few hours later, in his second

over of the second innings of this

match in Barbados, Griffith, a fast

bowler, was no-balled for throwing

by the square-leg umpire Cortez

Jordan.”

Griffith was dogged by accusations

that his quicker ball was always

thrown, though this was one of only

two instances in his career in which

he was no-balled. The spotlight also

fell on bouncers.

WR Pockshut, a London doctor,

proposed a solution to MCC: award

six runs to the batting side if a bowler

is deemed to have sent down a

bumper. After the death of Phillip

Hughes, the 25-year-old Australia

batsman who was struck in the neck,

in 2014, Contractor said that he was

against prohibition of the short ball.

“If that is done, it will take away the

beauty of Test cricket,” he said.

Contractor returned to first-class

cricket ten months after the incident.

He played on until 1970 but said the

India selectors were afraid of what

would happen if he were struck

again, and they never came calling.

1962

CONTRACTOR

FRACTURES SKULL

Elgan Alderman

the times | Saturday April 9 2022 1GS 23

Contractor in 1962, left; after having

the plate removed this week, above