From a report by Andy Bull in The Spin:
Congratulations to Rangana Herath, the roly-poly Sri Lankan spinner whose 12 wickets at 33 each against Australia have bumped him up to fourth in the ICC’s Test bowling rankings. Herath took three for 47 in the fourth innings last Sunday, an exceptional feat for a dead man.
Herath, according to those two impeccable news sources Twitter and Wikipedia, passed away in a car crash in Sydney on Friday night. Concern grew back in Colombo, and word of the tragedy spread so far and wide that Herath himself was woken at 2.30am by a phone call from his team-mate Tillakaratne Dilshan, asking him whether rumours of his demise had been exaggerated.
Herath’s was, undoubtedly, the best performance by an un-dead cricketer since Aubrey Smith made seven for Sussex against the MCC back in May 1890, shortly after the South African paper Graff-Reinet Advertiser had published “much regretted news of his decease” from “inflammation of the lungs”.
The Daily Telegraph published a glowing if, happily, premature obituary, in 1999, for the fiddler and one-time Fairport Convention member Dave Swarbrick, who had been dangerously ill in a Coventry hospital. Swarb said “It’s not the first time I’ve died in Coventry.”
GM, do you find it comforting or eerie to realize that obituaries are written pre-posthumously?
Have you read yours yet? (If not, I won’t spoil it for you!)
Perfect, GM.
yes
Mr Herath from memory had a far closer brush with his maker, when the Sri Lankan tour bus was shot up in Pakistan, fortunately no long term lasting effects etc etc
andrew
Jonathan, I think my obituary says simply “er…who?” – which I’m happy with. I guess it is eerie if you are famous and not extremely ancient. They certainly had Swarb’s ready, it seems, but then he’s had a double lung transplant and is a) a walking miracle and b) a huge tribute to our much-maligned and buggered-about-with National Health Service. In such cases, it’s merely prudent to put a few words together, I guess.
GM: like.