Another collision and the pain of them all

Whatrsquos it with these Aussie fast bowlers colliding with fieldsmen I wondered as I frantically searched the news wires for more on Moises Henriquesrsquo collision with Surrey teammate Rory Burns in a county match against Sussex on Sunday nightThat the authorities abandoned the game at Arundel was not good news and onersquos thoughts gravitated to the Phillip Hughes incident in November last year Will the players suffer the same fate as Hughes was a fair question especially after Surrey tweeted about it being ldquohorriblerdquo Fortunately Henriques and Burns survivedJeff Thomson flexes his injured right shoulder in 1977 PicGetty ImagesIn less than 40 years Henriques became the fifth Australian in memory to be involved in a collision in a Test The first being Jeff Thomson and Alan Turner at the Adelaide Oval in 1976 and then in 1999 Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie ran into each other at KandyTo some cricket followers the WaughGillespie incident will be remembered the most when it comes to Test cricket And while the most tragic of all collisions will have to be the fatal one which took the life of Bengalrsquos Ankit Keshri 20 after he collided with teammate Sourabh Mondal during a club match in April the most famous of collisions across all eras will have to be the one involving Thomson and TurnerAlan Turner above collided with Thomson on Christmas Eve of 1976 the opening day of the Australia vs Pakistan series Picture courtesy Australia Story of a Cricket Country by Christian RyanIt happened on Christmas Eve of 1976 the opening day of the Australia vs Pakistan series Thomson was all geared up for his third Australian summer as a terrorising fast bowler Now it was the turn of the Pakistanis to face up to himThomson told former Australia offspinnerturnedjournalist Ashley Mallett in Thommo Speaks Out that he was bowling ldquoa million miles an hourrdquo in that Adelaide opener and wicketkeeper Rod Marsh and the slip fielders were ldquostanding miles backrdquo He claimed two of the three wickets to fall for less than 100Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad came out after lunch in the hope of a revival Zaheer in particular was looking to thrive at the Adelaide Oval the best batting strip in AustraliaIn came Thomson slinging action and all bowled at full pace for Zaheer to top edge it for Turner at midwicket to head for the catch But Thomson didnrsquot trust him enough and ran for it himself to complete a possible caught and bowled Their meeting resulted in sickening blows to both Turnerrsquos body weight had a huge impact on Thomsonrsquos right shoulder which was more than just dislocated as Turner lay on the ground In Thomsonrsquos words Turner looked ldquoas dead as a maggotrdquoIan Chappell who had retired from Test cricket only the previous season was following his first postretirement lsquohomersquo Test He told me the other day ldquoApparently Thommo said as he was sitting there holding his shoulder lsquoIrsquoll kill himhellip if I ever finrsquo bowl againrsquo The Australian players werenrsquot sure whether he meant Turner or Zaheer When both Thommo and Turner went down after the collision Kerry OrsquoKeeffe called out lsquoLeave the dead attend to the woundedrsquo rdquoZaheer on Monday recalled playing the shot and how bad the injury was to Thomson ldquoThe thing I remember most is that it put Thomson out of action for the remainder of the seasonrdquo Zaheer prospered to get 85 and 101 in the drawn gameThomson couldnrsquot lift his arm ldquoMy arm was just hanging off the shoulder We got into the dressing room and a bloke had to cut my shirt offrdquo Thomson told Mallett He preserved the cut shirt as a souvenir All he wanted to do was to get back on the field He was that kind of a cricketerAn interesting conversation unfolded between him and Dr Adrian MunyardThomson ldquoGet me a doctor to put this thing back in and Irsquoll go back to the action And anyway who are youDr Adrian Munyard I am the doctor and I will be the surgeon operating on your shoulderTurner recovered to bat in the Test while Thommo wore his countryrsquos colours six months later in the 1977 Ashes in EnglandSeveral pundits reckon Thomson was not the same lethal bowler after the shoulder injury at Adelaide Zaheer disagreed ldquoI faced Thomson later in World Series Cricket and Test cricket and he was still quickrdquo The bespectacled batsman should know Before the 198182 Test series a Thomson delivery crashed into Zaheerrsquos ribs and kept him out of the opening Test at PerthIan Chappell doesnrsquot believe his former pace star lost out on pace after Adelaide 1976 ldquoIt wasnrsquot so much his pace was down mdash every now and again he could still bowl at top pace mdash but his ability to get the ball to lift steeply off a length was never quite there after his collision with AlanldquoThose who were there said his spell at Barbados in 197778 late one evening was the fastest theyrsquod ever seen He had Gordon Greenidge dropped I think by Bruce Yardley in the gully and he just let fly after that and had the batsmen ducking for cover They reckon even Viv Richards was struggling to cope and was almost happy to go when he got him late in the evening That spell was after he busted his shoulderrdquoThomson went on to take 200 Test wickets while Turner played his last Test in 1977Clayton Murzello is middayrsquos Group Sports Editor