Melbourne, August 08: If not for a sporting gesture from Australia, England wicketkeeper Matt Prior would not have played the fourth Test after suffering back spasms in the pre-game warm up on Friday night.
Australia allowed the toss of the coin to be pushed back 10 minutes so that Prior could receive urgent treatment from England’s medical staff.
The start of the fourth test at Headingley was a reenactment of the scenes at the start of the third test at Edgbaston, but with the roles reversed. Before the Edgbaston test, England allowed Australia to replace Brad Haddin at the last minute by Graham Manou, after the former broke a finger minutes before the start of the game.
England’s sporting gesture then – in allowing Manou – was mirrored by Australia here, by agreeing to a delayed toss.
Prior injured his back playing soccer during England’s warm-up, completing a chaotic final few hours for the home side leading into the game.
The side was awoken at 4.50am by a fire alarm at its hotel and forced to wait for some 40 minutes in the rain.
It then lost superstar all-rounder Andrew Flintoff on the morning of the game and had a member of its coaching staff struck accidentally with a ball by the Australians before Prior’s bizarre injury.
“Quite simply I was doing my normal warm-ups as I would do every other day and had a back spasm straight across the middle of my back and couldn’t move,” he said.
“The only thing that was on my mind was trying to get my breath back and trying to move my arms and legs.”
“That extra 10 minutes I was very thankful for and it was good of the Aussies to agree to that. I think that extra 10 minutes allowed me to play.”
But Prior knew from a similar episode on the eve of a match for county club Sussex two years ago that the pain would subside in time for him to be ‘right as rain’ the next day.
“It’s stiff,” said Prior, who was given anti-inflammatories and pain-killers for his back.
“When you have a back spasm you can imagine all the muscles are seizing up and the joints can tighten up. Ultimately your body is telling you to stop moving.”
“I knew that come tomorrow if I didn’t play that I’d be right as rain tomorrow and absolutely gutted that I didn’t go through a bit of stress today.”
Australia paceman Stuart Clark said the tourists were unaware of England’s disruptive build-up to the game.
“Maybe it was one of those days when things do happen,” he said.
“(It’s) tough for the captain, who has to open the batting as well, and make decisions. I imagine his thoughts may have be a touch scrambled.”
Prior said the incidents were not an excuse for England’s collapse which saw it dismissed for a paltry 102.
“We’ve all played enough cricket and we’re all big enough and old enough and experienced enough to adapt to things, put things behind us and get on with the job,” he said.
“I think anyone would be slightly miffed five in the morning standing in the rain with no shoes on, it’s not ideal.”
“It’s not an excuse. All it was a few grumpy people moaning they’ve been woken up at five.”
—–Agencies