Jimmy Anderson recalls the incident when Matthew Hayden almost killed him

What's the story?

After Nottinghamshire's Luke Fletcher suffered a head injury in the ongoing Natwest T20 Blast, England pacer James Anderson recalled a similar incident from the 2007 T20I against Australia at the SCG in Sydney where Aussie opener Matthew Hayden almost took him out when he hit a ball straight down the ground for a boundary.

In his column for The Telegraph, Anderson, who is set to feature in England's second Test against South Africa that starts later today in Nottingham, wrote about the incident and admitted that all the bowlers around the world knew that it was only a matter of time before it happened to someone and they were just praying it wasn’t them.

"It was sickening to watch Luke Fletcher being hit on the head by a ball smashed straight back at him. All the bowlers I have spoken to since seeing it have said that it was only a matter of time before it happened to someone and they were just praying it wasn’t them. I remember playing a Twenty20 game in Australia in 2007 and Matthew Hayden smacked one back at me. My head goes down as I follow through and as I looked up I just saw this white flash pass about an inch from the side of my head. If it had been a touch straighter I would not have had time to react and who knows what could have happened. That was a decade ago and since then the hitting in Twenty20 has become absolutely ridiculous," Anderson wrote.

In case you didn't know...

Nottinghamshire fast bowler Luke Fletcher will not play again this season after doctors advised a prolonged period of rest after he was hit on his head during his team's T20 Blast fixture against Birmingham Bears.

Extra cover: Fletcher out for season after horror head injury

Birmingham Bears batsman Sam Hain danced down the wicket and smashed the ball down the ground only to find it hitting the bowler's head. Fletcher went down immediately and was taken off the field for treatment.

Details

After this freak accident, most of the bowlers are worried about their safety in the T20 format. and Anderson believes that Fletcher's injury could see protective skullcaps being used by the bowlers in T20 cricket. There were some reports that England and Wales Cricket Board are testing protective headwear for umpires and coaches, and potentially bowlers.

Video

Note: watch from 2:00 to 2:30 for the incident

Author's take

Ever since the inception of T20s, the bat has started to dominate the ball. The bowlers are not getting spared from the brute force of the batters. Ravi Ashwin was hit on his head by Virat Kohli in 2010 and there are several instances when the batsmen hit the ball straight to the bowler and injured them unintentionally.

Just like the umpires using a shield to protect themselves from the balls that are hit straight down the ground, the bowlers should consider using face masks/skull caps to make sure that they don't suffer any freak accident like the one Luke Fletcher suffered.