Hazards of the game all too real

Mark Vermeulen

THE tragic death of Australian cricketer Phil Hughes underlined the dangers facing batsmen.

Admittedly, it was a freak occurrence which cost the life of the 25-year-old, but being hit on the head, even when wearing a protective helmet, is not something to be taken lightly.

One man who knows all about this is former Werneth professional Mark Vermeulen .

Castigated and reviled following incidents in his native Zimbabwe and here in England, Vermeulen’s problems stem from two separate cricketing incidents which sparked a dramatic chain of events.

One of these major issues came in a Lake Garage CLL match in September, 2006, when Vermeulen lost the plot during a match at Ashton.

Barracked by home supporters urging their team to victory, Vermeulen hurled a cricket ball at them, narrowly missing a young girl.

Then, armed with a boundary-marker spike, he advanced towards spectators before he was wrestled to the floor by Werneth supporters and officials.

Vermeulen was banned by the CLL for 10 years, but that was sub-sequently reduced to a year at an LCB hearing.

Vermeulen returned to Zimbabwe in disgrace, but his mental problems were only just beginning.

No longer able to play cricket for his country, Vermeulen allegedly attempted to burn down the Harare Sports Club which housed the Zimbabwe Cricket headquarters.

His efforts failed only because someone spotted smoke and the fire was quickly extinguished.

Undeterred,Vermeulen, then it was claimed, set his sights on Harare’s cricket academy the next night.

He set fire to the building’s thatched roof with a lighter, and the building, which contained computers, video equipment and playing kit, was gutted.

Within hours, Vermeulen was arrested and a long stretch in prison seemed inevitable.

But doctors’ examinations revealed Vermeulen was suffering from a illness related to epilepsy caused by two blows to the head.

The first came during a 2003 net session in which a beamer felled him.

A year later, while playing for Zimbabwe in a one-day match against India in Brisbane, a rising delivery crashed into Vermeulen’s helmet, causing an indentation in his skull.

A Zimbabwe court subsequently cleared Vermeulen of all charges against him on the basis that he had not been in control of his actions.

Vermeulen’s turbulent cricketing journey reached a happy conclusion this summer when he played for the Zimbabwe Test team against South Africa.

Although he made only 14 and 21 in a nine-wicket defeat for his country in Harare, the occasion was an amazing experience for Vermeulen.

He told the BBC: “After I got hit in the head in Aussie, the doctor told me not to play cricket again as it could be fatal, so I had to think long and hard about it.

“But because of my love for the game, I thought I would give it a bash, so to play Test cricket again after 10 years was absolutely awesome.

“And to play against the best team in the world was quite something.”