One ground I visited often as an umpire was close to a lake. When standing at the non-pavilion end the lake was on the off side. When the umpire moved to square leg the lake was behind him.
It is important that the umpire at square leg does not follow the movement of the ball when it goes behind him. His job is to watch the batsmen and check they ground their bats behind the crease to complete a run, as well as looking for run-outs when the ball comes in from the outfield.
Part way through the first team's innings a batsman stuck the ball past me. Suddenly, all the players on the field started running towards me. I turned round and saw a man thrashing about in the water on the far side of the lake. Some of the players swam across the lake towards him, others ran round the lake. All to no avail. the man drowned and the inquest verdict was that he took his life whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed.
The umpires had to decide if the match should be abandoned. We decided to ask the captains what they wished to do. It was agreed to play on after a further half-hour break to give the players time to recover from their physical exertion. To this day I think some of the players suffered mental scars which took a long time to heal, so probably playing on was the correct course of action.
KENT COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: acerbic, carping, caustic, curmudgeonly,critical, cynical, grumpy, moaning, sardonic and plain speaking.
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