Once I started wearing helmet, I regained confidence: Ewen Chatfield recalls concussion

The first Test he played could well have been his last but Ewen Chatfield didn't just live to tell the tale but also enjoyed an enduring love affair with cricket, which ended only after he turned 68.

Richard Hadlee's new ball partner for the longest time, Chatfield had a scary beginning to his international career in 1975, when England bowler Peter Lever's bouncer struck him on the temple and he immediately fell unconscious exactly 35 years ago in his debut Test for New Zealand.

He had swallowed his tongue after getting concussed. He was saved by opposition team physio Bernard Thomas, who sprinted onto the Eden Park to give the player mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before being rushed to the hospital.

In an interview to PTI, Chatfield spoke about how the incident impacted him but asserted that he never felt he would not be able to make a comeback.

"No, I didn't think that way that I will never return to cricket," the 69-year-old, who played 43 Tests and 114 ODIs, said.

"I mean I didn't go through any concussion test. It was not needed because I was already knocked out by that bouncer. I was obviously concussed," Chatfield added with a dash of humour.

Chatfield played his final first-class game in 1990 but his swansong cricket match was as recently as in 2019 when he turned up one last time for his club Naenae Park.

What mental adjustments did he make once he was back after recovering from the concussion against Australia in 1977?