Concussion in Amateur cricket. What is it like? Can things be made safter?

 

 

Remember the summer of 2024? Everyone who plays recreational cricket does because it rained. My god it rained! League season not starting for two weeks, games that were played were on bogs while we squelched across outfields and a winter that never ended with low temperatures well into May.

Finally, as the sun came out in July and August just like all British people we lose our marbles, myself very much included in this. After so much cricket called off, I was looking for as much as I could get in during the few decent weeks weather. The way I do this is to play for Forty Club a sort of cut price MCC if you will that has similar fixtures and a much more open to anyone style of recruitment. I travel Yorkshire, the Midlands and sometimes further afield to find more cricket and bowl more overs but the more cricket you play the more chance you have of being struck by the ball especially as a bowler.

It was an unusually hot sunny day I played a game against a touring cricket academy from the UAE an enthusiastic bunch who’s claim of juniors with maybe a few coaches helping out turned into the coaches doing a lot of batting and bowling. After watching the batting innings of runs being scored on a placid surface against good bowling but without a lot of direction, I was ready to go out to bowl.

I bowl over two of the innings because the opposition do not have whites (they only play white ball cricket in UAE) the game is played with a bright and shiny looking pink ball. I bowl one maybe two dot balls to our grown adult coach who was “helping out” and then I bowled one short that was cut for 4 runs. The reason my memory is fuzzy is because the next ball I thought I better pitch it up I did and a straight drive came hurtling back as me, I had nowhere to go.

There was a loud bang! It came from inside my head, noise comes into your head do not start there its very odd. The ball’s momentum completely stopped it dropped to the ground and so do I initially then I hold my head (I think) and scream. I really don’t remember much else happening that day, I had got a lift so had to wait around with some ice on my head until I could go home. I was so lucky that a doctor was playing in the game on the adjacent pitch to check me over. I remember going home and resting but then being afraid to go to sleep even though I was so tired. I did though and at least rested from the stress of the day.

For the next 5 months I had all the symptoms of concussion none of which were very nice at all. I will go through some of the various things that happened to me now. I stress this isn’t to gloat about my strength of recovery or garner sympathy it’s to show people what it’s like and that it’s not a badge of honour in any way.

Work

I work in the Civil Service and am very lucky that comes with the appropriate care and allowance for being off sick from work that others are not as lucky to have. I work on the computer all day. I tried to log in as normal the next day and I just couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t read the screen in any way, couldn’t focus and certainly couldn’t write a coherent sentence in an email. I was off in total for a month but there were times I felt like a fraud because I was playing cricket doing exercise and other things that a “sick” person isn’t supposed to do but I just could not work my head was scrambled and I couldn’t cope with any sort of pressured thinking or reading for more than a few minutes. I eventually returned in a phased manor, but it was a long time and for people not as lucky as me there could be a loss of income or people would have needed to work through the pain.

The Headaches

Pretty much within 24 hours an “egg” formed on my forehead, the pressure meant a headache every single morning without fail it is built up overnight due to lying down. This persisted into the new year even after all the other symptoms had died off. People living with other conditions where they have daily pain without fail are really brought into context by this. Five months felt like a lifetime to me I didn’t remember a time when they weren’t there. Thing is now and again I get a morning headache (dehydrated, snoring, to much drinking) but I must stop and think because my first thought is the concussion headaches are back because you realise the other factors at play.

Mood swings

I was not prepared for this in any way. Because of the initial shock this didn’t really start for about a week but then it really kicked in. Getting angry very suddenly then mixed with being teary at times and various outbursts for the rest of the year. I lost it during a game I thought should have been called off and just shouted in the field we should go off, later in September after skippering a game where we were bowled out for a very low total, I demolished my stumps after being dismissed and sat in the changing room crying until the changeover. It’s a very odd thing and something you sort of know you’re doing but also can’t quite control your actions in the same way. This for me was just a one off event but in other sports there are instances of people who have suffered several concussion events experiencing personality changes especially for the worst. I made the classic mistake of reading some of these and then being worried of who I might become, cricket fans may remember the tale of Mark Vermulen former Zimbabwe player who’s concussion event was liked to very strange behaviour then on.

Cricket

As described in the work section of course I kept playing cricket, like many of the club cricket population out there nothing can stop me and for some reason any rationality I employ in other walks of life just don’t work when it comes to making myself available on a Saturday. I played on the Saturday just two days after the event I bowled economically without a wicket but remember very little of the game at all (I’m normally the player with all the nuances of every ground stored in my memory). My playing and interaction with my teammates was certainly different because of the mood swings I describe above. The big thing though I was scared of the ball big time, it’s odd to say because the incident occurred when bowling but because it was such a freak incident it was batting, I felt so vulnerable, I quite literally didn’t want to be there I’m not great anyway but I just wanted to pretty much last a few deliveries as I could, the ball coming at me really triggered memories of the event. In the field I tried to just stay out the way as much as I could. It wasn’t until the winter of 2025 with the help of some vouchers for Christmas I was able to get back to normal, many thanks to my wife who fed balls into a bowling machine and progressively make me less scared. In September an incident triggered me to write this diary, a ball was hit back in similar fashion and hit me on the leg around the shin bone, similar circumstances your to close and there is no way of not getting hit. Straight away the memory kicked in combined with the adrenaline I scream “of course I’m not f***ing alright I’ve been hit with the ball” at someone just trying to check on me. The thing is through this is just a bruise that goes away the trajectory needed to hit my head again is just so low in percentage terms.

Medical Advice

Now this is the point at which I supposed to thank the excellent support of the NHS, but I can’t it wasn’t helpful at all. Not being able to get GP appointments and then struggling to say the right things in the message system to see a doctor and then not being able to articulate the symptoms correctly. I felt because I was otherwise fit and healthy there was just no way anything would happen. The only thing they were good at was providing sick notes without much prompting. I was able to speak to some teammates who are doctors and they eventually told me what to say what symptoms I had and how to word this to ensure my GP referred my to the hospital and I could get a scan. Nothing ease untoward in the end but it was really hard work to gain this piece of mind and if I was someone else without these contacts I might not have been able to get that far.

 

So why am I telling you all this? Well, its to say you really don’t want this to happen to you, it’s horrible and has so much more impact than you imagine. All players should take precautions, and also recreational cricket needs to get better at dealing with such incidents, professional cricket isn’t great (remember Smith v Archer a few years ago?) but that’s not where 99% of cricketers play each week in the UK.

First things first, ware a helmet!! Stuff all this nonsense about growing up with or without one and I wont ever hear from anyone I play with bravado about being OK or getting sledged etc. Batters, keepers and close fielders literally have a way of preventing serious concussion, you are a complete idiot for not taking it. Like the future generations smoking ban employed by counties (New Zealand) of the world recently I would say than anyone born after 01/01/1990 has to ware a helmet irrespective of age this would eventually phase out as old players who don’t ware one retire or exclusively play seniors’ cricket. I was born in 1988 and I think I played in a very early season of them being compulsory, but I think the point is fuzzy. After experiencing concussion, I really struggle to listen to any other counter argument whatsoever. I have all the batting protection on me at all times including the neck guards on my helmet my point about a mandate is they go from being silly to totally normal in just a few years (think car seatbelts) but one thing it does do is drives up prices when things become compulsory look at the costs of todays helmets especially for juniors since they became compulsory.

But what about bowlers you ask? I was hit in the head when bowling and many cricket fans remember the very shocking injury to Luke Fletcher in very similar circumstances. My impact on the forehead saved me he was not as “lucky”. I did exchange some emails about this with a teammate who in non-cricket works at Loughborough University. Bowler protection is still being thought off in cricket but without anything being mandated there isn’t the market for brands to research them. There is always the bat power argument, just like in other sports all cricket equipment used by pro’s has to be able to be sold on the open market, so as daft as it might be people can spend crazy amounts of money on the latest bat, money of which is made with the IPL style “6’s raining down” cricket. All “fast” blowers have a point in their follow through when you are vulnerable to the ball coming back at you, spinners tend to at least be stationary at this point, I appreciate there is no way of removing this danger and any head protection would be restrictive but it’s sad that “market forces” mean development isn’t even taking place. In all recreational cricket nothing stops someone getting strong in the gym in the week and wielding a £700 bat which if they connect goes miles, percentages are low but even at my lowly level I have clocked this more.

On thing is for sure tragic incidents involving batters and umpires have still dominated the headlines rightly so because the percentages of being hit are higher, it’s so important protection for these people is in place my point is here the bowlers still have nothing at all. One thing after having it happen to me is I just wont listen to the “no helmets in my day” brigade or “I can’t ware that they will rip me to shreds” people, you have to get a grip, in a workplace safety equipment in mandatory and has saved lives for decades. One thing is that in cricket you are not suffering repeat concussion week in week out, players of rugby, football and ice hockey will attest to this, these sports though have rapidly developed increasing more serious procedures going forward.

 

2024 ended in me getting married and me and my wife heading off to Tallinn and Helsinki to experience of Nordic Christmas markets and atmosphere. I returned to cricket refreshed after my bowling machine sessions and most importantly enjoyed the weather of 2025 even if it brough slightly flatter surfaces for me to bowl on. Stay safe out there protect yourself from injury, bravery comes from recognising the danger and not just blindly refusing to believe it’s existence, although it might be hard to quote that back to someone at first slip mocking your chest guard.