Sir Frank Worrell saves Indian captain by donating blood

When Nari Contractor was hit on the head by a ball from Charlie Griffith during India’s 1962 tour match against Barbados, he needed blood transfusion while undergoing an emergency operation to his head.

When Nari Contractor was hit on the head by a ball from Charlie Griffith during India’s 1962 tour match against Barbados, the Indian captain needed blood transfusion while undergoing an emergency operation to his head. Chandu Borde, Polly Umrigar and Bapu Nadkarni, three members of the Indian team whose blood group matched with Contractor’s, came forward and donated blood. But there was a West Indian as well who donated blood to Contractor: Sir Frank Worrell, who had come with Griffith to the hospital where Contractor was undergoing surgery.

As a remembrance of Worrell’s help in saving Contractor’s life, the Cricket Association of Bengal organises a blood donation drive on this day [February 3] every year and the day is commemorated as Sir Frank Worrell Day in the state of Bengal.

It was while he was in India accompanying the 1966-67 West Indies team that Worrell was diagnosed with leukemia, to which he succumbed at the age of 42, on March 13, 1967, in Jamaica.

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