MiD DAY catches up with Dennis Amiss, the first batsman to wear a helmet in international competition
MiD DAY catches up with Dennis Amiss, the first batsman to wear a helmet in international competition
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Batsmen the world over must thank Dennis Amiss for being the first batsman to wear a helmet in international competition.
Helmets got popular after Amiss went to a factory during Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket in 1978 and got a crash helmet to face the likes of Dennis Lillee, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding while batting for the World XI.
Dennis Amiss bats in the nets as Garfield Sobers looks on during the
World Series Cricket in Melbourne in 1978. Pics/Getty Images
In present day cricket, it is rare to see a batsman walk out without a helmet to do battle.
"The game has changed. There were more fast bowlers around," recalled Amiss as he chatted to MiDDAY at Edgbaston, a ground he first visited when he was nine. The 68-year-old former great is the deputy chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
A few years ago, he was chief executive of Warwickshire County Cricket Club and has contributed to it being arguably the best venue in England after Lord's. However, Amiss termed his contribution as, "very, very, very small."
"I suffered one or two hits on the head and I asked my contemporaries like Tony Greig, Alan Knott, Keith Fletcher, Derek Underwood what they thought about me wearing a helmet and they said, 'yeah, try it.' Later, Barry Richards started wearing a motorcycle helmet and so did Zaheer Abbas and Mushtaq Mohammad.
"David Hookes, who had his jaw broken by an Andy Roberts delivery, borrowed my helmet (on his comeback) and he hit Roberts for two consecutive sixes. I think Richie Benaud said in commentary that it was a defining moment in the game," said Amiss.
"I didn't expect helmets to take off. I just thought of using them because there were 18 fast bowlers (in World Series Cricket) bowling at 95mph on Australian pitches. I just thought it was the natural thing to do."
Amiss was always looking to improve his game. He was not coy in admitting his weakness to either spin or pace from time to time. During World Series Cricket, he asked Garfield Sobers to watch him in the nets. "I hadn't been scoring many runs so I asked Gary to have a look at me and see where I was going wrong. I can't remember what he said, but he had a good chat with me. He is a lovely man," said Amiss.
The Warwickshire warrior couldn't think of a disadvantage with regards to using a helmet: "It looks after players' safety and as long as it is used for the right reasons, it helps. I saw two players nearly get killed. I was there when Glamorgan's Roger Davis got hit, while fielding, by Warwickshire's Neal Abberley (in 1971) off Malcolm Nash.
"He was hit in the face and choked on his tongue. The doctor ran out and managed to get Roger's tongue out of the way and gave him the kiss of life.
"Then, in 1975, we nearly lost New Zealand's Ewen Chatfield (struck on the temple by England's Peter Lever). If it hadn't for our physio Bernard Thomas, he would have been killed. Bernard was not going to come to the ground that day since he was unwell. However, he decided to come. He just arrived and heard about Chatfield's injury. He ran on to the field and brought him back to life. They put him on oxygen when he came off the field and his life was saved. It was so very close. We don't want deaths on a cricket field."
Amiss is famous for his double centuries in Kingston in 1973-74 and at the Oval against the might of Clive Lloyd's West Indies pace attack in 1976. He didn't use the helmet then. So what did the protection do to his cricket?
"I was hit and the blow knocked my confidence. It gave me the confidence to keep playing. David Brown, our manager at Warwickshire wanted me to stay on (after he ended his international career with World Series Cricket). At one time, I had 86 first-class hundreds to my name. If I was going to get to 100 hundreds, the helmet was going to help me and I could do it," said Amiss, who finished his first-class career in 1987 with 102 centuries.
The 'small' matter of a hundred centuries is part of the ongoing India vs England Test and doubtless, Amiss would be delighted to see Sachin Tendulkar get his 100th international century on his home ground.
"In a way, I can understand what Sachin is going through. However, I had not scored 99 international hundreds, but 99 first-class hundreds. I can understand the difficulty of such a great player," he said.
Sunil Gavaskar is a batsman Amiss rated very highly. And he is well aware that the great Indian never wore a helmetu00a0-- "only a skull cap like Mike Brearley did."
Talking about Gavaskar, Amiss said: "He is one of the best ever players. He played a marvellous innings against us at Manchester in 1974. I remember that. Gavaskar would be right up there with Sachin."
Dennis Amiss on his former Warwickshire teammates Rohan Kanhai and Alvin Kallicharran:
"It is hard to believe that there could be better players than Rohan Kanhai. I have seen him score tons for Warwickshire on all sorts of pitchesu00a0-- against Derek Underwood on turning tracks and against Alan Ward and Harold Rhodes on a corrogated flyer against Derbyshire. Rohan got hundreds on both occasions. Nobody can be a fine cricketer than Garfield Sobers or Ian Botham but somehow Kanhai hardly gets a mention. I stood at the other end many times completely in awe of him.
Alvin Kallicharran: "Once, Warwickshire had lost two quick wickets against Worcestershire. Vanburn Holder was bowling really fast on a green wicket and conditions were overcast. I thought we should just see Holder off and I told Kalli to try and block him. Kalli said okay. When Vanburn bowled to him, he made the mistake of bouncing him and Kalli hooked it straight out of the ground for six.u00a0 At the end of the over, their captain said, 'thanks Vanburn, here's your sweater'. Kalli came to me and said, 'Dennis, that's the other way of getting him off the attack'."
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