Blood Donors' Day in India is also known as Frank Worrell Day?
(19 April 2002)
The genesis of this oddity lies in a tour game that India played
against Barbados between the second and third Tests of the 1962
tour. India had lost the first two Tests of the series, the
second by an innings and 18 runs. The hosts, meanwhile, had
hardly broken a sweat in demolishing their opponents, and India
must have looked to the tour game to gain some much-needed
impetus.
Instead, what they got was an experience that must stand as one
of the most traumatic in India's cricketing history; Charlie
Griffith, a bowler with a controversial action whom Sir
Frank Worrell had warned against, was the "benefactor."
Bowling after lunch, Griffith's fourth ball smashed into skipper
Nari Contractor's temple.
Suffering a concussion, Contractor was whisked immediately to the
hospital, where he had to undergo a 16-hour surgery to save his
life. Polly Umrigar, Bapu Nadkarni, Chandu Borde and KN Prabhu
all donated blood; in a most magnanimous gesture, so too did
Worrell. February 3, Blood Donors' Day in India, has also come to
be known as Frank Worrell Day as a tribute of appreciation.
Contractor's injury, incidentally, forced him out of Test
cricket. The third Test saw India led by
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Jr., the youngest captain in the
history of Test cricket.
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