This is a revised edition of an old piece.
Are Sport injuries justified?
The facts which are 20 years old are given below.
1. Number one for fatal accidents (death) is riding a horse.
Accidents in horse riding exceed motor racing.
(Less strains, sprains, dislocations and fractures).
I have seen a ruptured spleen with the horse kicking the rider.
I would not even mount an elephant (just the respect for this majestic beast), never mind, not in my life a horse.
I prefer, watching horse racing in a
racing track and be the doctor in attendance (no betting allowed) for
the jockeys and sign their books for a small fee.
That is high fun.
2. Number two is boxing (there is always irreversible and accumulating injuries that culminate in dementia).
(read my blog piece "Is boxing injuries justified."
3. Number three is Rugger.
4. Number 4 is martial arts.
5. Number five is soccer
6. Hockey my favorite is number six (I
have had one injury as an adult, that was due to a guy who never played
hockey before, hit my shin).
Never in my life, I have hit a guy with my
stick intentionally but this guy's fingers were squashed by me with a
single sharp trick, we use to warn the bad guys on field.
He never came again to play.
Of course, I have broken the front set of
teeth of a non academic staff member unintentionally and he never
returned but was duly referred to Dental School at Dangolla.
Then there was a beautiful burger lady
who attracted (including the two guys mentioned above), the undesirables
when (keeping goals, as a reserve player) we were practicing.
I was not a saint when I was young and in competitive sports.
It was true to most of us.
But there was no criminal intent.
She only had one go on her solar plexus
with a tone down strait from my stick, the ball landing on the middle of
her chest (if my aim was bit to the right or left it would have been
disaster for her bulging breasts) and we practiced uninterrupted for the
rest of the season and we emerged as the champions beating Colombo, in a
penalty shoot out.
She never came to play hockey.
I thank god for that!
Mind you, cricket comes last in the list of injuries.
I wonder how our ex-captain (I prefer him to be the ex-captain for many reasons) have had many injuries from his first international tournament.
My judgment, for his recurrence of injuries is his laziness and not practicing skills off play and setting a bad example to the young players.
Other reason is introducing skills not appropriate for the age of the (young) players.
Mind you our players were the worse in fielding throughout his captaincy.
In any case he is too old to practice new skills now, just like, "One cannot train an old dog to learn NEW tricks".
