Brett Lee's thunderbolt leaves TV anchor 'bleeding badly' in freak accident, stitches required: 'Geez... what happened?'
Mark Howard was immediately taken to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and stitched up.
Host and commentator Mark Howard, on Wednesday, was rushed to the hospital after being hit by a Brett Lee thunderbolt during a promo shoot in Sydney ahead of the second Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Adelaide.
Speaking to News Corp, former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee, who owns the record for the second-fastest delivery (161.1 kilometres per hour) bowled in international cricket to date, described the incident, saying that he was doing a bowling challenge while Howard was wicketkeeping. He sent down a thunderbolt that hit the top of off, but heard two sounds. He then saw the bail was “impaled” in Howard’s head, leaving him bleeding.
“We were filming today, doing a bowling challenge. I bowled a ball, it went through the top of off, Howie was keeping, he’s caught the ball and I’ve heard two noises,” Lee said.
“I’ve seen him hunched over and I thought, ‘geez, what’s happened,’ and I’ve realised the bail has flown through and impaled him right in the middle of the head and there was claret everywhere. He was bleeding pretty badly.
“But in all my years playing cricket at a professional level, I’ve never seen a bail travel that quick or that fast. It was a one in a million chance of it happening and I think the bail hit him first before he caught the ball, which means it must have literally hit the top of off stump.”
'I’m glad it didn’t hit me in the eye'
Howard was immediately taken to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, which was about 200 metres away from where the promo shoot was happening, and stitched up. Lee revealed that despite the incident, Howard will continue his broadcasting duty on Friday in the second Test match of the series between India and Australia.
“He’ll be raring to go come Friday. Nothing changes for us. He’s still hosting, still calling, still doing all the Howie stuff he does and the great job that he does,” Lee said.
“He might be a bit patched up like Rick McCosker, but he took it like a trooper and is tougher than some of the batsmen I bowled to, 100 per cent.”
Howard, meanwhile, was pleased that the ball did not hit him in the eyes as that could have affected his career as a commentator, based on the rules by Cricket Australia.
“It was one in a million to happen. I’m glad it didn’t hit me in the eye. He was very concerned. There was blood everywhere and then there was a discussion, ‘no, no, definitely no ambulance’, but there was a hospital literally 200 metres up the road,” Howard said.
“They looked after me in there, they were fantastic at RPA.
“There was a very kind doctor who was a big cricket fan who was just excited that he was treating someone who got hit by Brett Lee, I think.
“Hopefully if there is a scar I can always say it was from Brett Lee which I think is a pretty good badge of honour.
“I might look a bit rough and ready in the shoot and probably a little bit at the Test match I would have thought.”
Howard further revealed that although Lee was compassionate and caring, he was happy that the incident was captured on camera as he showed him the replay within minutes of the incident.
“With blood pouring out of my head, there were about four cameras there in 4K as there always is on Fox shoots, so Binga was pretty happy to show me the replay within about a minute of it happening. I had blood dripping out of my head while he was showing me the replay,” Howard said.
“I didn’t realise but I managed to take the ball in the gloves which I was happy.
“Binga was very compassionate and caring but he was very happy it was captured on so many cameras I think."
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