In the end it took an act of God to stop Jofra Archer. A thick bank of black cloud blew over the Grand Stand at a quarter-past-seven and in the twilight of Sunday night the umpires rightly decided that it was all of a sudden so dark that the Australian batsmen could not safely face him any more, if they ever could safely face him at all. Archer had already hit Marnus Labuschagne, Tim Paine and Matthew Wade earlier in the day, and that was in bright sunlight. So Archer slapped on his hat, turned his back from the crease, then strolled off to field at mid-on, despondent. Force majeure. Who knew there was a superior force out there?
Archer bowled 44 overs in this match and by the time they were over he had proved himself the most lethal fast bowler in the world. On Sunday he cracked open the Australian second innings, had David Warner caught at slip, Usman Khawaja caught behind and, later in the day, removed Paine too. But it was not just the wickets. Archer has hit 19 batsmen in the body and head in the short time he has been playing international cricket. Right now he is averaging a strike every 10 overs or so. His bowling is a test not just for Australia’s batsman but for the way the game handles these blows, too.
There is an old story about Australia’s coach, Justin Langer, from back in 2006. It was his 100th Test, a match against South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Facing the very first ball of the first innings, Langer turned away from a bouncer from Makhaya Ntini that caught him smack on the back of his helmet. Langer retired hurt and in hospital later that day he was diagnosed with a concussion and warned he would not be able to bat again in the match. One doctor even said that another blow to the head could be fatal. Langer spent the next three days in the hotel, feeling sick and sorry for himself.
On the fifth day Langer decided he was well enough to travel in. Australia were 248 for six at the start of play and needed another 45 runs to win. By the time the last pair came together they were still 18 away. It was then that their captain, Ricky Ponting, came in from the balcony and found Langer, in his whites, with his pads, helmet and arm-guard on, running laps round the dressing room. “There’s no way I’m letting you do it,” Ponting told him. Langer insisted: “I’ll be all right.” They went back and forth, until Ponting finally told him he would forfeit the match rather than let him bat. In the end Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz won them the game anyway, so no one will ever know how it would have played out.
That story came to mind again late on Saturday night, in that 10-minute spell when Steve Smith was back in the Australian dressing room at Lord’s, 80 not out and insisting he was ready to go back in. “We asked him over and over again,” Langer said that evening. “I asked him behind closed doors two or three and times and in front of the group. What else do you do?” Of course Smith wanted to go back in. Any good Australian batsman would. They grow up on stories about Dean Jones batting in the heat in Chennai, Steve Waugh scoring a century on one leg and, yes, Langer ignoring the doctors’ warning at the Wanderers.
Smith had passed all three sets of tests the medics use to diagnose concussion. But then Cricket Australia’s own statistics show that in 30% of the concussions suffered in cricket the symptoms are delayed until hours after the event. That is why they repeat the testing. At Lord’s in 2015 Chris Rogers retired hurt 48 hours after he was hit on the head by James Anderson because he found, all of a sudden, that “the Grand Stand started moving” when he was out in the middle.
This time Smith woke up with a headache, feeling dizzy, dozy and in a fog. The night before, when he resumed his innings, he had batted as if he was lost in one, too. He started with a yahoo over mid-wicket against his very first ball back, bowled by Chris Woakes, who beat him, in his very next over, on the inside and outside, before dismissing him lbw, leaving a ball that went straight on.
Cricket is still figuring out how best to handle all this. The Langer story shows the game has come a long way in a short time. But it may still have further to go. Those new protocols will need to be continuously monitored, just like Smith’s injury was. One clear change the ICC should make is to bring in independent match-day doctors at all internationals, men and women who can make the decision about whether or not a player is fit to resume batting. Australia’s doctor, Richard Saw, seemed to handle this incident very well according to the protocols but so long as he is an employee of the team there is always going to be uncomfortable conflict of interest there, too.
Beyond that there is a wider problem to work on, one that everyone who loves the game needs to address. Right now all of us players, fans and pundits are conditioned to think the admirable thing to do after being hit on the head is to carry on batting. We are still applauding players for their bravery when we ought to be chastising them for their foolishness.