Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

Page 38

Courage Personified
collided. Pataudi sustained injuries on the right hand and the right shoulder. Waters was injured on the forehead. Pataudi had not realised that his right eye was also injured. While going to the hospital in an ambulance, Pataudi confided to his friend that his hand was injured and that he was not sure whether he would fully recover for the University match. There was no sign of injury to the eye, neither was there any pain.
The following morning when Pataudi woke up his doctor told him that a particle of glass from the front windscreen of the car had entered his right eye which would have to be operated upon. Pataudi was taken aback on hearing this. A surgeon was immediately summoned. Pataudi was operated upon twice. Due to the injury, the lenses of Pataudi's eye had melted. As the other portions of the eye had also sustained injuries, there was a permanent damage to his right eye.
The cricketing world was plunged into deep sorrow. “Did this mean that it would no longer be possible to witness Pataudi's majestic batting ?' Everybody asked. A bud was just about to blossom and before it reached perfection and ripened; it had withered, thought many.
There are games which can be played with one eye also, but certainly not a game in which one has to accurately judge the speed and spin of a fast approaching ball. It requires both eyes with perfect vision. The eyes should also be agile enough to judge the flight of a turning ball. How does one face a ball suddenly rising after pitching with only one eye? It requires a pair of eyes with perfect vision. Secondly, Pataudi was now to face a few of the greatest bowlers of the time who had mastered the art of twisting and spinning the ball using the agility of their fingers and the grit of their wrists.