Blood Donors' Day in India is also known as Frank Worrell Day?
(19 April 2002)

The genesis of this oddity lies in a tour game that India played against Barbados between the second and third Tests of the 1962 tour. India had lost the first two Tests of the series, the second by an innings and 18 runs. The hosts, meanwhile, had hardly broken a sweat in demolishing their opponents, and India must have looked to the tour game to gain some much-needed impetus.

Instead, what they got was an experience that must stand as one of the most traumatic in India's cricketing history; Charlie Griffith, a bowler with a controversial action whom Sir Frank Worrell had warned against, was the "benefactor." Bowling after lunch, Griffith's fourth ball smashed into skipper Nari Contractor's temple.

Suffering a concussion, Contractor was whisked immediately to the hospital, where he had to undergo a 16-hour surgery to save his life. Polly Umrigar, Bapu Nadkarni, Chandu Borde and KN Prabhu all donated blood; in a most magnanimous gesture, so too did Worrell. February 3, Blood Donors' Day in India, has also come to be known as Frank Worrell Day as a tribute of appreciation.

Contractor's injury, incidentally, forced him out of Test cricket. The third Test saw India led by Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Jr., the youngest captain in the history of Test cricket.