• When Steve O’Keefe made his Test debut against Pakistan at Dubai in 2014/15, he became the first Australian Test cricketer born in Malaysia. The only other Malaysian-born Test cricketer was India’s Lall Singh, who appeared in a single match, against England at Lord’s in 1932. With figures of 2-107 and 2-112, O’Keefe became just the seventh bowler to concede at least 100 runs in both innings of their debut Test match.
During the same tour, his New South Wales team-mate Sean Abbott also made his debut, in a Twenty20 international, also at Dubai. He became just the third international cricketer to be born on 29 February. The other Leap Year Day players are England’s Alf Gover and Australia’s Gavin Stevens.
• A 33-year-old fast bowler collapsed on the pitch and died in 2012 having just taken a five-wicket haul in a club match in the UK. The match was abandoned after Richard Beaumont was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Birmingham.
• A number of cricket players were killed as a result of a mortar attack in Pakistan in 2012. A volley of shells hit a residential area of a tribal region that borders Afghanistan, including a cricket ground where a game was underway at the time.
• A former Ranji Trophy cricketer lost his life on a street in the Indian city of Bhopal in 2012 after suffering a heart attack. The Indian media reported that no one went to the rescue of Raja Ali who’d collapsed to the pavement until police rushed him off to hospital. The 36-year-old appeared in 87 first-class matches, scoring nine centuries after making his debut in 1996/97.
• Three of the greatest players to represent the West Indies share the same birthday of 21 September. Learie Constantine was born on this day, in 1902, as was Curtly Ambrose, in 1963, and Chris Gayle in 1979.
• Two Test cricketers who shared the same nickname of “Plum” also shared the same date of birth and death. Plum Warner, who appeared in 15 Tests for England, was born on 2 October in 1873 at Port-of-Spain and died on 30 January in 1963. Plum Lewis was born on the same date in 1884 and appeared in a single Test for South Africa. He also died on 30 January, in 1976.
• Rajesh Peter, an Indian fast bowler, was found dead in his flat in New Delhi in 1995 in what were described as suspicious circumstances. He appeared in 13 first-class matches for Delhi, scoring 67 not out in a ninth-wicket partnership of 118 with Rakesh Shukla (69*) in the 1981/82 Ranji Trophy Final against Karnataka.
• Sri Lankan-born batsman Sujeewa Kamalasuriya, who appeared in three first-class matches in 1988/89, lost his life in a devastating tsunami that struck southern Asia in 2004. He had moved to Australia and was back in his home country showing the sights to a friend when the giant wave hit.
• Two first-class cricketers died on the same day in 2012 in road accidents when returning home from a game. The West Indies’ Runako Morton was killed after his car slammed into a pole, while Ranji Trophy cricketer Kishore Bhikane died after a truck hit his bike, which he had just won for the best bowling performance in a state-level cricket tournament.
Morton, who made his West Indies debut in 2001/02, became the first Twenty20 international cricketer to die. East Africa’s Don Pringle – who was also killed in a car crash, in 1975 – was the first one-day international cricketer to die, while the first Test cricketer to die was England’s James Southerton, in 1880.
At the age of 33 years and 226 days, Morton also became the shortest-lived West Indies ODI player after Jamaican all-rounder Laurie Williams. Aged 33 years and 270 days, Williams – who appeared in 15 one-day internationals – died in 2002 after his car collided with a bus.
• A former first-class cricketer lost his life during the crash of an Indian Airlines plane in the western city of Aurangabad in 1993. An airline employee, the 31-year-old Vivek Agarwal had appeared in a single first-class match, opening the batting for Haryana against Bengal at Faridabad in 1982/83.
• In 2008, former Victorian and Australian batsman Paul Hibbert was discovered dead in his Melbourne home by local police. The 56-year-old former opening batsman was found in his lounge room after a relative became concerned at not having heard from him for more than a week. Hibbert was called up for a Test match against India in 1977/78 following a maiden century (100) against the tourists, an innings without a single boundary, only the second such instance of the feat in first-class cricket.
• Pakistan’s Aftab Baloch, who was born on April Fool’s Day, made his Test debut at the age of 16, and later scored a mammoth 428 for Sind against Baluchistan at Karachi in 1973/74. A few months later, he toured England and was given room number 428 in one of the hotels that the Pakistan team stayed in.
• Wisdom Siziba, a Zimbabwean wicketkeeping opening batsman, died of heart failure in 2009 while doing his laundry. The 28-year-old, who suffered from epilepsy, made history in 1999/2000 when he became just the tenth batsman to carry his bat on his first-class debut.
• Nine British children died in 1943 when a plane careered into a cricket field while a match was in progress near the city of Bath. The pilot was also killed in the crash.
• When Auckland batsman Billy Hendy passed away in 1992 at the age of 92, he’d been New Zealand’s oldest first-class cricketer. Appearing in two first-class matches in 1927/28, he famously hit an unbeaten 300 in a club game after reaching 200 by lunch.
• Wellington batsman Syd Ward died on New Year’s Eve in 2010 at the age of 103, the second-oldest first-class cricketer of all time. Born in Sydney, Ward appeared in ten first-class matches in the early 1930s. The longest-lived cricketer is Derbyshire’s Jim Hutchinson who died in 2000, aged 103 years and 344 days.
• On the opening day of the England-South Africa Test at The Oval in 2012, all of the dismissals that took place involved players born in the same country. Andrew Strauss was dismissed lbw by Morne Morkel, while numbers three and four, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen, were caught behind by A.B. de Villiers, off Morkel and Jacques Kallis, respectively. All six players were born in South Africa.
• A wicketkeeper-batsman who appeared in 15 first-class matches died in a freak accident in 2014 while helping to prepare a local sports ground. The 25-year-old Sandeep Singh, who made his first-class debut as an opening batsman for the Indian team Haryana in 2005/06, was killed when a tractor rolled over him.
• A 36-year-old woman who died after the collapse of her garage in Melbourne in 2006 was the sister of former South and West Australian batsman James Brayshaw. The daughter of Ian Brayshaw – the last bowler to claim all ten wickets in a first-class innings in Australia – Sally Weir was killed instantly when the façade of her brick garage in suburban Melbourne collapsed on top of her.
• When Jehan Mubarak made his debut for Sri Lanka in 2002, he became only the second American-born Test cricketer. Mubarak, born in Washington DC, followed Kenneth “Bam Bam” Weekes, who was born in Boston in 1912 and played in two Tests for the West Indies, making his debut at Lord’s in 1939.
• A month after the death of the first Portuguese-born Test cricketer, Australia’s Moises Henriques became the second. The Lisbon-born Dick Westcott, who appeared in five Tests for South Africa in the 1950s, passed away at the age of 85 in January 2013. In February, Henriques made his debut at Chennai, scoring a half-century in each innings. Henriques and the football champion Cristiano Ronaldo share a February birthday and the same place of birth – Funchal on the island of Madeira.
• Two cricketers competing in seniors tournaments in Pakistan died during matches in 2009. A 53-year-old passed away after complaining of chest pains when bowling in a game in Karachi, while a 60-year-old doctor died when batting.
• The opposing captains for the England-West Indies Test series of 1976 were both born in Queenstown. Tony Greig was born in Queenstown in Cape Province in South Africa, while Clive Lloyd was born at Queenstown in the Guyana capital Georgetown.
• Ashwath Aiyappa, who appeared in three first-class matches for Karnataka, drowned in a river in 2014 while trying to rescue his brother. The 30-year-old made his highest score of 62 on his first-class debut in 2001/02.
• South African fast bowler Tertius Bosch met an untimely death in 2000, an event shrouded in mystery. The right-arm fast bowler, who took three wickets in his only Test – against the West Indies at Bridgetown in 1991/92 – reportedly died of a rare viral infection at the age of 33. In the midst of allegations of money laundering and extra-marital affairs, his body was exhumed with claims he might have been poisoned.
• Frances King, who played one-day international cricket for New Zealand, died of meningitis at the age of 22 in 2003. She made her debut against Australia, taking 21 wickets at 19.23 in 15 ODIs.
• A week after being a part of cricket history, Abdul Aziz died after being struck on the body by a cricket ball during a first-class match in Karachi. In his previous match – for Karachi against Bahawalpur in 1958/59 – Aziz was at the crease when team-mate Hanif Mohammad scored a then-world-record 499. A few days later, at the same ground, Aziz was hit in the chest by Combined Services bowler Dildar Awan before he had scored in the first innings of the final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. The 18-year-old died on his way to hospital.
• Just months before his death in 2014, Phillip Hughes had made the highest score of his first-class career and became the first Australian batsman to score a double-century in List A cricket. Opening the batting for the Australia A side against South Africa A, Hughes made 243 not out in a first-class match at Townsville having struck an unbeaten 202, with 18 fours and six sixes, in a 50-over match in Darwin.
On the verge of a recall for the 2014/15 Test series against India, Hughes – playing for South Australia – was struck in the neck by a ball from New South Wales pace bowler Sean Abbott during a Sheffield Shield match at the SCG. Batting in front of his mother and sister, he succumbed to his injuries two days later, becoming the second-youngest Australian Test cricketer to die.
Having made his Twenty20 debut for Australia alongside Abbott only a few weeks previously, Hughes became the youngest Twenty20 international cricketer – and the youngest Australian ODI cricketer – to lose his life. Hughes died 46 days after his last match for Australia, the second-shortest period between a player’s last international match and his death. Fred Grace had passed away at the age of 29 from pneumonia two weeks after making his Test debut for England in 1880. W.G.’s younger brother died 14 days after playing against Australia at The Oval, a Test in which he made a pair.
Three days shy of turning 26, Hughes appeared in 26 Tests and scored 26 centuries in first-class cricket.
• Two days after the death of Phillip Hughes, a former Israel cricket captain was killed after being struck by a ball while umpiring a match in the country’s national cricket league. Standing at the bowler’s end, Hillel Awasker was hit after a ball ricocheted off the stumps from a shot hit straight down the pitch. The incident occurred shortly after a minute’s silence had been held for Hughes. The 55-year-old Awasker – who captained Israel at the ICC Trophy in 1982 and 1997 – suffered a heart attack after being hit and died in hospital.
• A player from Kolkata died in 2015 after an on-field collision with an East Bengal team-mate in a match against Bhowanipore. While fielding as 12th man, Ankit Keshri – a former Bengal Under-21 captain – was hit in the back of the neck by the other player’s knee after attempting to take a catch. Shibsagar Singh, who appeared in 28 first-class matches for Bengal, attempted to revive him with mouth-to-mouth resucscitation before medics arrived at the ground. Keshri succumbed to a heart attack on his hospital bed several days after the accident.
• Two of Australia’s opening batsmen during the 1926 Ashes series bore names of the towns in which they were born. Warren Bardsley was born in the New South Wales town of Warren; Bill Woodfull’s middle name was Maldon, his birthplace, a town near Melbourne.
• Pakistan’s openers for the under-19 World Cup in 2014 were both born on the same day in the same city. Sami Aslam and Imam-ul-Haq were both born on 12 December in 1995 in Lahore and began the tournament with a century opening stand in their first two matches.
• One of the 298 casualties of the shooting down of a Malaysian Airlines jet over Ukraine in 2014 was a cricketer from the St Mary Redcliffe club in Bristol. The 20-year-old Ben Pocock had been on his way to Australia to attend a university placement in Perth.