D'Arcy Short, the man of the moment in the BBL, left his Hobart Hurricanes coach Gary Kirsten needing emergency dental work after he was struck a nasty blow in the face at training.
Short, who has tallied a record BBL run tally in this season's competition to push himself into contention for an international call-up, was being given throwdowns by Kirsten in the indoor school at Bellerive Oval when he fiercely struck one back at his coach, who suffered a cracked jaw and needed dental work to fix multiple broken teeth, although he did not require surgery.
The incident again showed the dangers posed to coaches when feeding hard-hitting batsmen in the nets and George Bailey, the Hurricanes captain, said Kirsten was fortunate that the injuries were not more severe.
"It was wet, so we were in the indoor centre," Bailey told cricket.com.au. "Darce just whacked one back at him [Kirsten]that he didn't pick up in time.
"He is hitting the ball pretty cleanly and hard at the moment. It was a bit messy. [Kirsten] has actually come out of it very luckily in the big scheme of things.
"He said that he's probably been a bit blase about that over the years. Everyone has had [helmets] on since."
In recent times, the requirement for coaches to protect themselves has been taken more seriously. Darren Lehmann, Australia's coach, has worn full baseball and hockey masks when giving throwdowns while Graham Thorpe, one of England's assistant coaches, has also worn a helmet when providing throwdowns using the 'dog-thrower,' which is now very popular for feeding batsmen but also enables the coaches to get dangerously close.