Australian commentator Mark Howard was left bleeding after a bail hit him on the head during a promo shoot in Sydney. Ahead of the second Test between India and Australia, legendary pacer Brett Lee was doing a bowling challenge while Howard was wicketkeeping. Lee fired a vicious delivery that went on to hit top of off. While Howard did collect the ball, the follow through saw the bail hit Howard on the side of his forehead, leaving the veteran commentary bleeding. Howard was rushed to the hospital where he had to be stitched up.
Lee revealed that he heard two sounds but didn’t realise about Howard’s injury until the latter hunched over in grimace.
“We were filming today, doing a bowling challenge. I bowled a ball, it went through the top of off, Howie was keeping, he’s caught the ball and I’ve heard two noises,” Lee told News Corp.
“I’ve seen him hunched over and I thought, ‘geez, what’s happened,’ and I’ve realised the bail has flown through and impaled him right in the middle of the head and there was claret everywhere. He was bleeding pretty badly. But in all my years playing cricket at a professional level, I’ve never seen a bail travel that quick or that fast. It was a one in a million chance of it happening and I think the bail hit him first before he caught the ball, which means it must have literally hit the top of off stump,” he added.
Former Australian express pace bowler Brett Lee has claimed another victim, this time with Fox Cricket host Mark Howard sent to hospital. Vision here @kayosports
STORY | https://t.co/vFanZ7wEah pic.twitter.com/r174rM87kQ
— Telegraph Sport (@telegraph_sport) December 5, 2024
Lee also revealed that despite the incident, Howard will be on commentary duty for the pink-ball Test, starting in Adelaide from Friday.
“He’ll be raring to go come Friday. Nothing changes for us. He’s still hosting, still calling, still doing all the Howie stuff he does and the great job that he does. He might be a bit patched up like Rick McCosker, but he took it like a trooper and is tougher than some of the batsmen I bowled to, 100 per cent,” added Lee.
Howard, on the other hand, was relieved that the ball didn’t hit him on the eye as it could have ended his career as a cricket commentator at least.
“It was one in a million to happen. I’m glad it didn’t hit me in the eye. He was very concerned. There was blood everywhere and then there was a discussion, ‘no, no, definitely no ambulance’, but there was a hospital literally 200 metres up the road. They looked after me in there, they were fantastic at RPA,” Howard further revealed.
Howard also jokingly revealed that while Lee was a bit concerned for him, the pace bowling great was also happy that the incident was captured on the camera from multiple angles.
“With blood pouring out of my head, there were about four cameras there in 4K as there always is on Fox shoots, so Binga was pretty happy to show me the replay within about a minute of it happening. I had blood dripping out of my head while he was showing me the replay,” Howard revealed.
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