From Rishabh Pant To Andrew Symonds: Cricketers Who Were Involved In Major Car Accident

Many cricketers get injured on field during a match but some have been injured in car accidents also. These incidents had a deep impact on the players careers and lives. While some players survived with injuries, others faced tragic consequences which shook the cricket fraternity. Here are the cricketers who were involved in major road accidents.

1. Rishabh Pant
On December 30,2022  Rishabh Pant , the leading wicket-keeper of Indian cricket team was involved in a major accident. While driving from Delhi to his hometown Roorkee,Pant’s car hit the divider while he was attempting to avoid a pothole on the Delhi-Dehradun highway. Pant had two wounds on his forehead, a torn ligament in his right knee, as well as injuries to his right wrist, ankle, toe and abrasions on his back. Remarkably, Pant recovered from injuries and even made it back to the Indian cricket team squad.

2. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi
One of India’s best captain ever, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi suffered a severe eye injury in a car accident while going home from Oxford after the match against Sussex in July 1961. He had injured his right eye so badly that he would lose vision in that eye as a splinter had passed from the windscreen and entered the eye. Despite the setback, he kept playing cricket while sporting a glass eye and would go on to become India’s youngest Test captain. He played 46 Test matches, scoring 2793 runs at an average of 34.91. Pataudi played his last Test in 1975 against West Indies at home. Under his Captaincy, Team India won nine matches out of 40 while 19 ended in a draw.

3. Najeeb Tarakai
Afghanistan top order batsman Najeeb Tarakai tragically died in October 2020 as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in Jalalabad. Najeeb was struck by a truck while crossing the street in Eastern Nangarhar. He played his only one-day international match against Ireland in March 2017 in Greater Noida.

4. Andrew Flintoff
TV Presenter and Former England All-Rounder Andrew Flintoff, suffered major injuries in a car accident in 2022. While filming for the show “Top Gear” shown on the BBC, Flintoff flipped a Morgan Super 3 vehicle over the first bend of a track and was also not wearing a Helmet. He sustained broken ribs and major facial injuries. After recovering, Flintoff returned to cricket during England tour of India in 2024 as part of the coaching staff.

5. Andrew Symonds
Australian cricket legend Andrew Symonds passed away in a car crash in 2022. A local resident and later emergency services tried to revive Symonds but in vain. He was the sole occupant in the car when the incident occurred near Townsville, Queensland. His death shocked the sporting world as it happened just a few weeks after Shane Warne suffered a fatal heart attack while on holiday in Thailand.