Hamid Hasan’s knee injury made him feel like he was dead

Afghanistan team has not managed the performances they promised in the ICC World Cup 2019. Things were probably jinxed from the start as just a month before, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) officials made drastic changes in the team, deciding to sack Asghar Afghan as the captain of the team, name Gulbadin Naib as the new leader, even as most other players stood against this move.

Another bone of contention was the selections that were made including that of fast bowler Hamid Hasan, who hadn’t played for the national team in the last 2-3 years before his name was included in the World Cup squad. However, Hasan has a story of struggle and fight with fate behind him playing for Afghanistan at the top level.

He made his debut for Afghanistan a decade ago, but his journey to the top was stopped midway thanks to a career-threatening injury. He recalled how he and Mohammad Nabi were first invited by the then MCC President Robin Marlar to play for MCC in England and train in the country as well. Hamid and Nabi got a chance to play at Lord’s Cricket Ground, living in hostels together and now both of them are back in England playing in the World Cup.

Hasan made his debut for Afghanistan in the country’s first ever One-Day International – against Scotland in 2009, and the things were looking bright. But Hasan’s life changed when he was just 25-years-old when his career came to a halt thanks to an injury in 2012. Hasan was playing for ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI against England and while fielding hurt his knee badly.

Hasan narrates the injury in his own words

“Alastair Cook hit a shot, I tried to chase the ball but couldn’t stop. I was in two minds, whether to stop the ball or leave it. I left the ball, but I had to jump over the fence. The right knee jumped over, but the left knee slightly hit it with full speed, and I went banning to the sightscreen grill. This knee, that knee, the shoulder, I was injured everywhere.

I was conscious for a minute maybe. I felt dead. When I opened my eyes I was face down, I was not moving my hand. This leg [left], even a single centimeter was not moving. Same with the right one. I start crying ‘my legs, my legs’. Like a small baby, a kid. They came with a stretcher and rolled me like you’re rolling something in a paper,” Hasan was quoted as saying by CricketNext.

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“They took me to a hospital that was forty minutes from the ground and the full forty minutes I was crying because the pain was unbearable. There were bruises everywhere in my leg. For two-three days they took some MRI scans. My right leg was massive and turned purple and I had to undergo operation,” Hasan further said.

Since then, Hasan has only played for Afghanistan on and off including the 2015 World Cup, where he bowled Afghanistan’s first ever delivery in the tournament. He has already announced that he will retire from the ODI format after this World Cup and wants to go with his head held high.