Return ticket - the story of cricketing injuries and replacements

Anant Gaundalkar

Fast bowlers suffering injuries to shoulder, knee or back and returning midway through overseas tours is no new phenomenon - the likes of Dennis Lillee, Curtley Ambrose, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Bob Willis, Bruce Reid, Craig McDermott, Allan Donald and such have all fallen victim to the syndrome in recent times.

The case of Javagal Srinath, though, is unique - if only because he returns from the Caribbean without having bowled a single ball. The Indian pace ace was suffering shoulder problems right through the recent tour of South Africa, leading one to wonder how he was selected for the tour of West Indies in the first place.

Meanwhile, we look at instances of Indian players who have returned in the middle of tours:

In course of the 1980-81 series against New Zealand, Dilip Doshi returned with a leg injury and was replaced by Ravi Shastri.

In the 1982-83 series against Pakistan, it was present Indian coach Madan Lal's turn to fly back, with T A Shekhar being the replacement.

In 1985-86, Rajinder Singh Ghai was forced to return, with Roger Binny being flown out as replacement.

In the 1988-89 series against the West Indies, Krishnamachari Srikkanth returned from the West Indies through injury, with W V Raman being flown out as substitute.

In 1989-90, it was Navjot Singh Sidhu who returned midway through the New Zealand tour, with Dilip Vengsarkar flying out to replace him. A year later, on the 1991-92 tour of Australia, Ravi Shastri, who started his cricketing career as a replacement, was himself replaced thanks to a new injury by, irony of ironies, Navjot Singh Sidhu.

In 1993-94, Manoj Prabhakar sustained an injury on the New Zealand tour, and Venkatesh Prasad got his first chance to don Indian colours. In 1996, it was Sunil Joshi on the tour of England who was forced to return, with Salil Ankola being chosen as the replacement. That same year, Navjot Singh Sidhu walked out of the team for personal reasons - injured pride, perhaps? - but was not replaced.

And now it is Srinath's turn to return - with Hyderabad's Noel David being named as his replacement.

Of course, V V S Laxman also returned from the South African tour recently with a fractured finger - but that was at the end of the Test series, so we haven't considered that here.