Chandu Borde narrated how Frank Worrell's noble act of blood donation saved Nari Contractor's life

Former Indian cricketer Chandu Borde narrated a 58-year-old heartwarming story featuring former West Indies captain Frank Worrell and former Indian captain Nari Contractor. On March 17, 1962, India, under Nari Contractor, was playing a colony match against Barbados when Nari was at the verge of losing his life due to a heart-wrenching incident on the cricket pitch.

On the Day 2 of the match between India and Barbados, Contractor suffered a deadly head injury while trying to duck a bouncer by Charlie Griffith. Frank Worrell, who was enjoying the match through the VIP box, immediately got into action and took it upon himself to save the life of the visiting captain.

Chandu Norde, who was playing in that match and had helped in saving the life of his captain, reminisced the whole episode. Norde said as quoted by Times Now News, “He (Griffith) bowled a bouncer which Nari tried to duck. That bouncer hit on his right side because being a left-hander his right side was towards the bowler. He fell down. Nari said that he was in a lot of pain.

“Our manager was Ghulam Ahmed. It was decided to take him to a clinic. There was one doctor named Ford. Xray showed a crack on the right side. The doctor said to Ghulam Ahmed that he has to be operated on immediately within one hour otherwise it will be very dangerous. But they had to operate on him. B+ group blood was required.”

Players of both the sides immediately lined up to donate blood to Nari. Five of them including Sir Frank Worrell,  Bapu Nadkarni, Polly Umrigar, Chandu Borde, and Prabhu, a journalist had same blood group and they donated to Nari and it saved a life. Out of those five, only Borde is alive today.

West Bengal organises a blood camp in the memory of Sir Frank Worrell

This noble act by Frank Worrell was widely appreciated by the entire cricket fraternity. West Bengal also organises a blood donation camp every year since 1981 at the Club House of the Cricket Association of Bengal, Eden Gardens, Kolkata to acknowledge the humanitarian act by the former West Indies captain.

During the camp, hundreds of sports lovers come forward to donate blood to the Government Blood Banks. The certificates provided to the donors are signed by a legendary cricket figure every year. Thus far, veterans like Don Bradman, Sunil Gavaskar, Garfield Sobers, Imran Khan, Ritchie Benaud, Sachin Tendulkar, Syed Mushtaq Ali, Ian Botham, John Wright and Sanat Jayasurya have signed the certificates for the noble cause carried out by West Indies.