Recently, former India cricketer and captain Nari Contractor celebrated his 92nd birthday. He is widely remembered as the cricketer whose international career was cut short after he was struck on the skull by a vicious bouncer from West Indies pacer Charlie Griffith during a tour match against Barbados on India’s 1962 tour of the Caribbean. The match was played between the second Test at Kingston — which turned out to be Contractor’s 31st and final international appearance — and the third Test of the five-match series at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
His skull was fractured and it needed a series of surgeries which saved him. Everywhere it is written that this injury cut short his international cricket career. The brave attempt to stage a comeback to Test cricket was not successful. A very interesting question is why he didn’t play, even after having recovered? Let us look at the facts:
Fact is that, once recovered, Nari Contractor returned to cricket and very soon he was playing first class cricket. Then why didn't he stage a comeback to Test cricket? To answer this question, a relook at the injury scene is very important.
When Charlie Griffith bouncer hit Contractor, he sustained a serious head injury and immediate treatment was required. Incidentally, the West Indian captain Frank Worrell was present there and he took immediate action to save the life of Nari.
Former India captain Ghulam Ahmed was manager of the touring India team and he ensured that specialists arrived in time to perform surgery. ‘Taking personal responsibility and without wasting any precious time, it was Ghulam Ahmed who had consented for the surgery. Many lined up to donate the blood to facilitate the surgery and ultimately five (Frank Worrell, Chandu Borde, Bapu Nadkarni, Polly Umrigar and KN Prabhu, a journalist) donated the blood as they had the same blood group. Contractor always said, ‘If I am living today, it’s only because of Ghulam.’
A lesser known fact is that a steel plate was inserted in his skull to save him, instead of putting a mesh, so that if he gets hit on this side (right) again, nothing will happen to him. This process took two and a half hours but this plate helped and he recovered. Although this surgery gave confidence to Contractor to play again, he was advised to retire from playing Test cricket. On the other hand he was determined to make a comeback.
Nari Contractor resumed playing first-class cricket in 1962-63 for Gujarat (Ranji Trophy) and West Zone (Duleep Trophy). He continued playing till 1970-71 and in between his name was in consideration for India’s 1967-68 tour of Australia.
When Contractor resumed cricket in 1962, incidentally another Charlie (Stayers) bowled to him at practice, at the Cricket Club of India so that he should have the feel of the pace. Stayers was one of four West Indian fast bowlers brought in by the BCCI to play domestic cricket in India in that season. Contractor played in Ranji and other tournaments but not Test cricket. Contractor still regrets that he did not play a Test match, ‘I wanted to play just one Test after my head injury.’
It’s on record that Dr. Chandy who inserted a metal plate in Contractor’s head, had told him, ‘I want to tell you (Contractor) in plain and simple English that if you want to be a vegetable for the rest of your life, don’t ever play cricket again.’ Contractor however had other ideas and returned to cricket.
He later revealed that the selectors were hesitant to pick him due to the fear of another head injury and never picked him again. They were too afraid. What if he got hit again? What if next time the result was worse? They could not take that responsibility. However Contractor kept playing domestic cricket.
A very interesting fact is that whenever Nari was considered for Test selection again, Ghulam Ahmed was consulted about his condition. Nari always said that his life was saved by the team manager Ghulam Ahmed who called in the local surgeon just in time when he was vomiting blood in a bucket. Incidentally when Contractor was seriously in line for a Test comeback, the same Ghulam Ahmed was the chairman of selectors.
For your information: The titanium plate inserted in Nari Contractors head was removed after 60 years at the Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai. The body had started rejecting the plate, making it necessary to remove it.
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