Post an extensive research, cricket law-makers Marylebone Cricket Club, under the supervision of top brains like Kumar Sangakkara and Sourav Ganguly, decide to standardise the quality of helmets used by batters, wicketkeepers while standing up to the stumps and close-in fielders such as forward short leg or silly point.

Nizar was fielding at forward short on Friday when he copped that blow on his helmet.

Further the ICC and MCC also rewrote the rule book in 2017, making it legal, the catches off the helmet worn by a fielder, except in slip positions.

But that apart, the quality and manufacturing methods of helmets saw constant changes over the decades, from the day when former England batter Patsy Hendren wore a hat with cotton padding made by his wife in a match.

Then in the 1970s, former England captain Dennis Amiss wore a modified biker’s helmet in Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket where some of the best fast bowlers of the time had assembled.

“Probably, the arrival of some fearsome pacers in the 70s from the West Indies and Australia changed the whole scenario. Helmets and other body guards were needed against them to protect your limbs,” a former cricketer told PTI.