death / injury to players ~ accident or negligence !!

Last month, Adam Voges, veteran of 20 Tests lowered himself to the turf after he was struck,  team medical staff ran out onto the ground to assess him.  After a few minutes of treatment, Voges was able to walk from the ground, assisted by medical staff. He was later diagnosed with concussion and ruled out of the rest of the four day match.  Western Australia’s Voges was concussed and forced to retire hurt on 16 after being struck while trying to evade a bouncer from Tigers paceman Cameron Stevenson. That appeared pretty nasty blow.

Away from the ground, 2 players from United Bank Limited, a Pakistan first-class team, were injured in a fire that broke out at the Regent Plaza Hotel in Karachi on Monday. In an accident that left at least 11 people dead and 45 injured, allrounder Yasim Murtaza fractured his heel while 20-year-old legspinner Karamat Ali suffered a hand injury in a bid to save themselves. Ten players from UBL, along with Umar Amin, who plays for Sui Southern Gas Corporation, were staying at the hotel for the ongoing super-eight round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan's premier first-class tournament.

Back home in Bengaluru, in a tragic turn of events, two Kannada actors died after a movie stunt went horribly wrong at Tippagondanahalli Lake. The actors were filming the stunts for an upcoming film ‘Masti Gudi,’ which stars Duniya Vijay in the lead role. While filming the scene, Vijay and the two actors, Anil and Uday, jumped into the lake from a helicopter. While the lead actor swam ashore, the other two didn’t surface for a long time, post which a search party was immediately dispatched.  Reports suggested that safety harness was provided to the lead actor but none were provided to the other two. The two had even confessed to not being good swimmers before going into the shot.

A young chess grandmaster fell to his death in an apparent parkour accident, after he attempted to jump between balconies in Moscow. According to Russian news reports, 20-year-old Yuri Eliseev died after falling from the 12^th  floor of his apartment building in Moscow. It is reported that  Eliseev died while trying to reach the balcony of a neighbouring apartment. He was described as a practitioner of parkour, or free-running, which involves climbing, jumping to difficult perches and acrobatic moves. 'Balconing' has become a popular craze with Brits holidaying in Spain. Government travel advice has been updated to urge British tourists in Spain to use balconies safely. The Foreign Office (FCO) said there had been a number of 'very serious accidents' as a result of falls from balconies and popular craze 'balconing'.

This one is different ~ a young cricketer tipped for an international career drowned after friends encouraged him to jump in a river despite knowing he could not swim, an inquest has heard. Hamza Shabbir Ali, 20 - who already played for Hampshire's first XI and was expected to play at the top level - drowned in the River Avon in Saltford near Bath while he and some friends were playing on a rope swing. Witnesses told the inquest how they heard the Mr Ali's friends urging him to 'come in the water' and try out the rope swing.

Mr Ali then told them he couldn't swim but, after more encouragement, he tried to doggy paddle across the water. As he did, he became submerged below the surface of the water. Around 20 people dived into the river to look for Mr Ali until his unconscious body was finally recovered. At an inquest into his death, a bystander  said she was at a nearby pub with her then partner when she heard Hamza's two friends encouraging him into the water. She said: 'Steven had to swim back to the rope swing bank. Steven went back into the water and kept diving under to help. The two friends on the rope swing did not get in to help Steven.

It's always tragic when anyone loses their life, especially when it is a young person of 20 years of age .. but this cannot be faulted as a total accident.  In some of the instances listed above, there is element of human negligence / carelessness too.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

5^th Dec 2016.