Len Hutton in 1946
by Abhishek Mukherjee
Remember the sacking of the Doordarshan "casual employee" in 2014? The newsreader had pronounced "Xi Jinping" as "Eleven Jinping".
Something similar had happened in England, just after the Second World War, on Day 1 of the match between Yorkshire and Leicestershire at Headingley.
Len Hutton had been grievously injured during the War. Multiple surgeries later, he was left with a left arm two inches shorter than his right. But it was evident that he had not lost the old magic (remember, he held the world record for the highest Test score at this point).
Here, too, he scored 111 out of Yorkshire's 232.
The result was transmitted to the BBC office, where John Snagge, an announcer and commentator of some repute, was waiting. Snagge had been BCC's war report presenter.
Whether the note was handwritten or typed is not known. What is known is that it carried a simple seven-word message:
Yorkshire 232 all out, Len Hutton ill.
Snagge got the first six words all right. Then he saw something similar to ||| scrawled across the paper, and his brain did not process that as 111. So he announced:
Yorkshire 232 all out, Len Hutton ill.
Snagge apologised soon afterwards. He also retained his job. Cricket is a forgiving domain.
This happened on 25 May 1946.