Former Australia all-rounder Graeme Watson passed away on Friday (April 24) after a prolonged battle with cancer. Watson featured in only five Tests and two ODIs, but was a celebrated sportsperson down under.
Born in 1945, Watson was the first Australian cricketer to represent three Sheffield Shield teams and also among a rare breed of players to have managed cricket and AFL football together.
Read Also: West Indies' Test tour to England postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic
Watson wasn't so lucky with injuries, however, as he faced them in both the sporting fields. In cricket, it was down to receiving a regular barrage of short balls while batting, including once going down with a career-threatening face injury because of a Tony Greig full-toss.
Despite that, Watson, fondly called 'Beatle', recovered and continued to play for a few more years and was hugely popular among his colleagues and opposition for that.
"Beatle lived a very full life and he was looking forward to caring for (wife) Jan in her post-operation period but unfortunately the tables were turned and it was she who lovingly cared for him," wrote former Australia captain Ian Chappell in a heartfelt tribute on Channel Nine.
Chappell also has vivid memories of the Tony Greig incident being Watson's non-striker at the time. "I was batting with Watson when an unintentional beamer from Tony Greig hit him in the nose and he was carted off the ground bleeding profusely," he wrote.
"He was extremely unfortunate as Greig's delivery was affected when his bowling hand hit the stumps and Watson top-edged a ball that would've hit him in the chest if his attempted pull shot had missed."
"It was only on that 1972 tour when I met one of his nurses at a social function that I found out Beatle had actually stopped breathing for a while when he was in hospital. It was typical of Beatle to say very little about the incident; he made light of any injury and at times was too brave for his own good," added Chappell, who spent a lot of time with Watson as a roomie.
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
