Waugh suffered a grisly broken nose

In a sickening blow, Waugh suffered a badly broken nose and Gillespie a broken leg that would keep him out the national side throughout the Australian season.

In what Wisden describes as "reminiscent of a scene out of Apocalypse Now", a helicopter - "dark green and menacing" - landed on the outfield to pick up the two injured players before flying them to a Colombo hospital.

Then there was the case of David "Syd" Lawrence who collapsed in mid-delivery stride and shattered a knee cap while bowling for England in New Zealand in 1991.

Of course, not all cricket injuries involve blood and gore, but that is not so say that freak accidents cannot have a devastating effect on the player's career.

Terry Alderman missed more than a year of international cricket and had to reinvent himself as a medium-fast seam and swing bowler when he badly damaged his right shoulder while rugby tackling a male streaker during the Perth Test against England in 1981/82.

Alderman was injured tackling a streaker

And Paul Downton was enjoying a routing county match for Middlesex when he suffered a career-ending injury when he was struck in the left eye by a bail while wicket-keeping.

Broken fingers, arms and noses, and other injuries as a result of being hit by the ball, are so commonplace in cricket that they barely need recording.

But in Andy Lloyd's case the moment he chose to take a blow on the head from Malcolm Marshall could not have been more unfortunately timed.

Picked to face the West Indies on his home ground, Edgbaston, in 1984, he had reason to be satisfied seven overs into England's innings when he had reached ten not out - until, that is, Malcolm dropped one short and "clocked" him on the side of the head.

Lloyd retired hurt and was absent for the rest of the series. It was his first - and last - Test for England. At least he can claim to have gone through his Test career without having been dismissed.

And it is not just the cricketers who occasionally find themselves in the firing line.

Colin Croft once shoulder-barged a New Zealand umpire after feeling aggrieved that a decision had gone against him in 1979/80.

And Dickie Bird's footwork was not quite nimble enough when he was struck a painful blow on the ankle by an Ian Botham straight drive in 1984.

Then there are the downright ludicrous injuries.

Derek Pringle takes the biscuit for once missing a Test after hurting himself while writing a letter on the eve of the match.

But former Essex team-mate Don Topley runs him close for having damaged a hand on a spring-loaded letterbox while delivering a letter to a friend.

Topley damaged his hand on a letter box

Ted Dexter broke his leg when his own car ran him over and Gil Langley, the Australian wicketkeeper in the 1950s, once missed a Test after injuring a hand by lying on it during his sleep.

Perhaps the most injury-prone was Ian Grieg, of Sussex and Surrey.

After scoring 42 on the first day of a county match for Sussex, Grieg broke his ankle when he fell 18 feet while trying to break into his own house after snapping the key in the front door lock.

Some time later, Grieg was hit on the finger by a Pakistan bowler and went to hospital for the x-ray which revealed a break. As he got up, he hit his head on the x-ray machine and needed two stitches.

At least all of the above instances of cricketing injuries can be imagined. But try if you can to visualise the Rev. Walter Marcon (1824-1875), an Old Etonian and one of the fastest bowlers in the 1840s.

At Oxford, he once bowled so fast that he broke the leg of a batsman - and all the time he was bowling underarm.