Every single person in the world wants to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. Even cricketers, in all their glory and fame, find themselves drawn towards the thought of etching their names into its quirky pages at some time or the other.
Former England skipper Nasser Hussain held the world record for the highest cricket catch in July last year. Standing at Lords Cricket Ground with two dissimilar gloves in his hands and a wry smile on his face, Hussain decided to take up the challenge of catching the ball from 32 metres in the air to break the then existing record. He managed to do that on the very first attempt.
However, the then 48-year-old found the 32-metre mark to be fairly easy. Hence, he went on to create a better record on the same day, catching a ball that was thundering towards the ground from a whopping 49 metres!
The third time around, Hussain tried to catch the ball from the maximum height the BatCam could go to – 122 metres. However, as soon as the ball was dropped from the drone, the former England cricketer realised that he was way out of his depth. He couldn’t even come close to the ball, and it thudded to the ground 5-6 metres away from him.
Watch the video here:
Nasser’s record, as unique as it might’ve been, lasted just five months.
Kristan Baumgartner, a cricketer from the United Kingdom, managed to break the record when he caught the swirling ball at the Windsor Cricket Club Ground from an unreal height of 69 metres.
He achieved the record on 30 November 2016, and it is yet to be broke.
High catches are not as easy as they look, and require immense concentration on the part of the fielder. The ball swirls in the air and if there is wind, the task becomes even trickier. To look at how tough high catches can really be, look at this immensely funny video below. You can observe how Michael Hussey, one of the best fielders Australia have produced, has no idea how to catch the ball that is hit high in the air by the batsman.
The fact that high catches are so tough to judge makes Baumgartner’s Windsor feat even more remarkable. The fact that the ball is accelerating from such a height when it hits the palm of the hand makes it tough for the fielder to hold on to it. Hussain’s reaction when he caught the ball from 49 metres shows us how painful the experience was.
It looks highly unlikely that anyone will break Baumgartner’s record in the near future!
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