Death in maidan: Medical facilities to be made mandatory

The death of amateur cricketer Ratnakar More, during a Tata inter-office match on Tuesday, has brought the focus back on medical facilities at the city maidans. More, who was keeping wickets, complained of uneasiness and went into the team tent to take rest. But he collapsed immediately. Teammates took him to Bombay Hospital where he was declared “brought dead”.

Now the obvious question that comes to mind is whether the 29-year-old, who got married a year ago and was expecting his first child, could have been saved if there was medical aid available at the ground. Obviously, lessons from the Phil Hughes’s death have not been learnt.

For any cricket tournament, to be played on the maidans, the organisers have to take permission from the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) as the parent body allots grounds, umpire and scorers. However, the other facilities are the prerogatives of the organisers – in this case the Tata Group.

For their authorised tournament, the MCA has a doctor stationed at every ground. But curiously enough, it does not make it mandatory for other organisers.

While Tata Sports officials were unavailable for comment, MCA joint secretary PV Shetty admitted that the incident has forced the association to review its policies. “The managing committee will meet soon to look into the matter and make it mandatory for all organisers to have a doctor and other medical facilities at the venues,” the MCA official said.