In a tragic incident that unfolded in Mumbai, a 52-year-old man died while playing cricket at Dadkar Maidan in Matunga on Monday after being struck on the head by a ball. Unaware of the ball travelling at him, the man was struck on the head after a ball flew from an adjacent pitch. The man was reportedly fielding with his back towards the batter from the adjacent pitch, and hence, couldn’t see the ball being hit towards him at pace. He was struck behind the year and was rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

“He fell down and was rushed to hospital, where he was declared dead,” said an eyewitness as per the Times of India.

The two matches were being played in the Kutchhi Visa Oswal Vikas Legend Cup, a T20 tournament for people aged 50 or more.

Space crunch and time paucity forced the authorities to organise two or more cricket matches at the same ground parallely. Though it wasn’t the first case where a player got injured after being hit by a ball from another match, this was probably the first incident where the injury cost a person’s life.

Police said that they filed an accidental death report. The police also ordered an autopsy to rule out the possibility of an intentional attempt to hit the person but found no such evidence in the report.

The medical officer at Lion Tarachand Hospital claimed that the person was brought dead around 5 pm. The body was later handed over to the family.

Space crunch is one of the biggest problems in cities for sports-loving people. Most children opt to play cricket of other sports on the streets because of the lack of facilities or easy access. Even in public parks and playgrounds, it is often witnessed that multiple matches take place parallely, posing a huge risk.