Former Australian fast bowler Nathan Bracken has revealed that he took a legal action against Cricket Australia (CA) because there was no protection or worker’s compensation in place for a player whose career was curtailed by injury.
The 35-year-old Bracken, who was forced to retire in 2011 after a chronic right knee injury left him with a permanent disability, walks with a pronounced limp and the problem was considered bad enough to entitle him to disabled parking.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the left-armer said that he had felt ostracised from the game since he started the legal action and was angered to hear that Cricket New South Wales (NSW) was instructed by CA to have no dealings with him.
Stating that he took the action as CA does not have to underwrite claims like his, Bracken said that it is sad that other sporting codes have policies that deal with such injuries and cricket does not, adding that he is just requesting the board to cover his the cost of his surgeries and subsequent recoveries like any other employer.
Bracken further said that he could not run for the fear of his knee swelling and getting painful, adding that he is unable to straighten his leg and it has been deemed as a permanent disability.
Bracken, whose claim concerns the treatment of his injury by CA’s medical advisers, and their reluctance to seek specialist advice, or obtain follow-up scans, also said he lived on a diet of painkillers prescribed and administered by CA staff to get through games.
The father-of-two, who retired after a surgeon said that he had lost movement in his knee and would never get it back, mentioned that there is no scheme in place that deals with career-ending injuries even if a player has given his best for the country. (ANI)