Raymond Van Schoor, Phillip Hughes and others who suffered cricket-related deaths

Raymond Van Schoor collapsed on the cricket field due to stroke and never revived.

On November 21, 2015, the cricket world was faced with the tragic story of Namibian cricketer Raymond Van Schoor who died of a brain stroke that afflicted him during a cricket match. One can’t help but reflect on similar tragedies in the past in regards to cricketers who lost their lives on the field or were afflicted by a symptom in course of play that eventually rid them of their lives shortly after. Rishad D’Souza reflects on the cricketers who faced similar tragedies. READ: Namibian cricketer Raymond Van Schoor passes away due to brain stroke

Jasper Vinall: The first recorded death on the cricket field was way back in its formative years in 1624. Jasper Vinall was fielding at (most probably) short leg and was looking to take a catch of a ball that lobbed up towards him, but the batsman Edward Tye keen to save his skin went for a second hit for the ball oblivious to the fast approaching Vinall. The bat struck Vinall hard on the forehead and he collapsed. His death came 13 days later. The incident is commonly cited as the reason behind the law that batsmen are not allowed to hit the ball twice. READ: Phil Hughes and other cricketers who succumbed to on-field injuries

George Summers: In 1870, playing for Nottinghamshire against MCC at Lord’s, George Summers was facing the then fast bowler John Platts. Back in the day, helmets were non-existent and heads did not have even the most rudimentary form of protection. Moreover, the Lord’s pitch was uneven and offered volatile bounce. One delivery from Platts at fast pace got Summers on the head. The batsman collapsed but seemingly recuperated and carried on usually. He was oblivious to internal damage and died from the injury four days later. The incident caused Platts to give up fast bowling and switched his style. The Summers incident also inspired the first form of head protection as Richard Daft wrapped a towel round his head when he came out to bat in that very game.

Andy Ducat: In a war-time exhibition match between a homeguard team of Surrey and the equivalent Sussex at Lord’s, Ducat aged 56, passed away due to heart attack during a lunch break. The match was called off in his honour. In his younger days, he represented England in cricket as well as football and is one of few personalities in the world to have played internationally in two codes.  READ: When the scoreboard read — ‘not out dead’

Abdul Aziz: Aziz was the first instance of a Pakistani cricketer dying a cricket-related death in competitive cricket. Aziz playing for Karachi died after getting struck on the heart by a delivery from Dildwar Awan. It is suspected that the death occurred due to a prior unrecognised heart disease. This theory has some weight to it given that Awan was a slow off-break bowler and by itself the pace of the ball shouldn’t have been adequate to cause that level of damage.

Wilf Slack: The batsman often suffered from blackouts during cricket matches and during one such episodes the England cricketer passed away due to heart attack during a game in Gambia on 15 January, 1989. Slack was buried in the funeral cortege drove in the vicinity of the Lord’s Cricket Ground and alongside his body were buried his bat and England blazer as a mark of his love for the game.

Ian Folley: Folley’s death is the most freak of the lot as it involved negligence on part of the medical authorities rather than actual damage sustained during the match. Playing for Whitehaven in 1993, he was hit by a ball under the eye and during the course of treatment on the damaged eye, Folley died of heart attack while under anesthesia. Folley was aged 30 at time of the tragedy.

Raman Lamba: The India cricketer was fielding at forward short leg in a domestic Bangladesh match for Abahani Krira, when a hard-struck ball by Mehrab Hossain off left-arm spinner Saifullah Khan crashed into his temple. Lamba was not wearing a helmet and the impact was solid. The injury did not appear that serious initially but internal hemorrhage occurred subsequently and Lamba succumbed to the injury. READ: Raman Lamba: A tale of determination, brilliance and tragedy

Wasim Raja: Rameez Raja’s younger brother played 57 Tests for Pakistan alongside 54 ODIs. Wasim settled in UK after marriage with a British woman and regularly played casual cricket. In one such game tragedy struck. During a game for a Surrey over-50s team, he suffered from heart attack and passed away.

Darryl Randall: Randall, at the age of 32, playing a club game for Old Selbornians against Fore Hare University took a severe blow to the head off a short ball on a failed attempt to play the pull shot and immediately collapsed. He was rushed to Alice Hospital but died on the way. The South African had played four First-Class games for Border.

Phillip Hughes: Of all the cases, the incident that caused the most worldwide grief out of all was that of Australian 25-year-old Hughes, who passed away due to a blow to the neck. The batsman was protected by head gear but in a freak occurrence the short-ball from Sean Abbott hit him on the unprotected portion of the neck after which he immediately collapsed. The ball caused a nerve in the neck to burst which sent blood gushing to the brain. After three days of intense attempts to revive the promising cricketer, the battle was given up.

Raymond Van Schoor: The Namibian cricketer suffered a stroke after scoring an unbeaten 15 for his national team against Free State. Van Schoor collapsed due to the struck and was rushed for treatment to a local hospital. Five days after suffering the stroke, Van Schoor passed away. He was considered a Namibia mainstay having scored 8,000 runs for the team across formats since his first appearance for them as a 17-year-old.

(Rishad D’Souza, a reporter with CricketCountry, gave up hopes of playing Test cricket after a poor gully-cricket career. He now reports on the sport. You can follow @RDcric on Twitter)