Late sport Hadlee again hit by injury

Press, 14 June 1980, Page 6

Late sport Hadlee again hit by injury

By R. T. BRITTENDEN j ■lt is' little wonder that, Richard Hadlee’s name hasnot been in the cricket news; from England these last fewj weeks. With the season seven weeks bld Hadlee has: bowled only 37 overs in first-class matches arfd 'has taken but three wickets. He has again been a victim of injury. ! In his pre-season training! for Nottinghamshire he had! a recurrence of the ankle in-i jury in his left foot which afflicted him during the l Dunedin test against the! West Indies. During a telephone con-1 versation last evening he/ said the ankle was now alii right but he has also had a . recurrence of the injury toj muscles in his left leg which occurred during New Zealand’s 1978 tour of England. Hadlee was still cheerful, however. He expected to be playing within a week or so and hoped to be off his full run before long. While suffering from these . injuries he has played for Nottinghamshire in all four of its Benson and Hedges knock-out games, and in ;

.three John Player leggu? i limited-over matches. In - [those games he was on a ishort run and bowled- he ' said, pretty accurately and j quite successfully. I “But. it has all been ; ! embarrassing, depressing and :a bit degrading,” he said“Notts ( want to look after me and they realise that I have problems playing almost 12 months of the year as I do. [This was to be my last sea- : son for the county but they ■ seem to be interested in | having me back to play a • I few first-class games and all ■ the one-day matches. I’m not [sure I’ll be interested in that [ — the boys .with Notts. 1 might think I.’m simply having an armchair ride.” L His county’s problems I have been compounded by I the absence of the captain and outstanding all-rounder, Clive- Rice, with a left leg injury akin to Hadlee’s, But at this stage Hadlee does not see any problem about bowling for New Zealand in Australia in the coming southern summer. “That’s a long way off,” he said, “and as of now I’m down to a couple of niggles.”