That it happened just as one-day cricket started to come to the fore with the introduction of the John Player League was especially sad, as that format seemed ideal for a hitter like Colin Milburn.
That the accident should have happened to him of all people, at a time when the game is short of characters, is particularly cruel. He is looked upon with genuine affection by friends no less than foes, and by everyone who meets him. In the last two or three years. Colin Milburn has played a number of innings of incredible devastation, and he is still only 27.
Only last winter he scored 181 between luncheon and tea playing for Western Australia against Queensland, and in his only championship match this season, he made 158 against Leicestershire. Before his accident, he was English cricket’s greatest asset and its most lovable personality.
If surgery permitted it, I am sure thousands of cricketers would gladly present him with an eye, and to disperse the gloom, it would be nice if his first-class colleagues were all to have a Colin Milburn day when they played the game for fun and not for figures. He hopes to leave the hospital within a fortnight’s time and have a false eye fitted within a month or two.
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