EXCLUSIVE Death threats, a few regrets... and my bid to replace Sir Alex with Souness: Former Rangers chairman SIR DAVID MURRAY reflects on a rollercoaster journey through life in his new autobiography
Sir David Murray recently revisited the spot where a tyre of his purple Lotus Elite blew, sending him smashing into a tree and lying unconscious next to the wreckage, his legs so mangled by an impact which forced the engine into the driver's seat that they would be amputated. The marks are still there at the base of the tree, nearly 50 years on, just as there are still purple shards of the car's bodywork embedded in his upper leg.
It struck him, for the first time, that he'd so nearly avoided that life-defining catastrophe, on an overcast Saturday afternoon on a dual carriageway in East Lothian, after playing in a rugby match in 1976.
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Telegraph
9 hours ago
- Telegraph
Rishabh Pant's car blew up and he stared death in the face, says surgeon who saved him
'Rishabh Pant was extremely lucky to be alive – extremely lucky.' Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, the orthopaedic surgeon who treated the Indian cricket superstar after his car crash, is in no doubt about his fortune. 'To be in an accident like this, where the car actually overturns and blows up, the risk of death is extremely high.' On December 30, 2022, flamboyant wicketkeeper Pant – who made history by scoring two centuries in one Test against England at Headingley – drove from Delhi to his home town of Roorkee. At 5:30am, Pant lost control of his car on the Delhi-Dehradun highway. His vehicle skidded for 200 metres before hitting the road divider. While the Mercedes burned, Pant's right knee twisted at 90 degrees. 'My time in this world is over,' Pant thought to himself, he later said. He was just 25 years old – a year older than James Dean when he suffered his fatal car crash. But Pant and two passers-by broke open a window to allow him to escape before the car set on fire. Pant was hospitalised with major injuries to his head, back and feet. After a week in local hospitals, Pant was airlifted to Mumbai. 'When he first came in, he had a dislocated right knee,' Pardiwala recalls. 'He also had an injury to his right ankle, lots of other minor injuries all over. He had a lot of skin loss, so his entire skin from the nape of the neck down to his knees was completely scraped off in the process of that accident. Then getting out of the car – that broken glass scraped off a lot of the skin and the flesh from his back.' If Pant's first great fortune was to be alive, his second was that he still had his right leg at all. Injuries so grievous he could not brush his teeth for weeks 'When your knee dislocates, and all the ligaments break, there's a high possibility of the nerve or the main blood vessel also being injured,' Pardiwala explains. 'If the blood vessel gets injured, you typically have about four to six hours to restore the blood supply. Otherwise, there's a risk of losing your limb. The fact that his blood vessel wasn't injured despite having a severe high-velocity knee dislocation was extremely lucky.' When he met Pardiwala in Mumbai, Pant's first question was: 'Am I ever going to be able to play again?' His mother's first question to Pardiwala was simply: 'Is he ever going to be able to walk again?' ' We had a lengthy discussion about the fact that these are grievous injuries – we would need to reconstruct the entire knee,' Pardiwala recalls. 'Once we reconstruct the entire knee, we're going to have to then work through a whole process of letting it heal, letting it recover, then get back the basic functions – the range, the strength and the stability.' On January 6, 2023, two days after he arrived in Mumbai, Pant was put under general anaesthetic. Over the next four hours, Pardiwala performed surgery on his right knee, reconstructing three ligaments and repairing tendons and meniscus. For several weeks after the surgery, Pant's movement in his upper body – the area which had been far less affected than his legs – remained so debilitated that he could not brush his teeth without assistance. 'He lost a lot of skin, and so he couldn't really move his hands. They were completely swollen. He couldn't really move either of his hands initially.' It was weeks until Pant could even grip a glass safely to drink water without assistance. For four months after the accident, Pant could only walk with crutches. 'Typically, when we reconstruct these patients they are happy just to get back to normal life,' Pardiwala explains. 'If they can walk and do some minimal amount of recreational sports, they're happy.' But Pant's sights were altogether higher. Pardiwala 'really didn't know' whether Pant could play for India again. 'I said: 'We can certainly make sure that he walks again. I'm going to try my best to make sure that we can get him back to playing again.' 'We didn't really want to offer him too much initially, but we did want to give him hope. So I said: 'We'll break it down into steps.' Step one, of course, has to be the surgery. 'When we discussed it just after the surgery, the way I told him is the fact you're alive, the fact that your limbs survived – that's two miracles down. If we get you back to competitive cricket, that's going to be a third miracle. Let's just hope for everything, and then take it a step at a time. 'His question then was: 'OK, assuming that we do manage to get there, how long is it going to be?' I said: 'Probably looking at 18 months to get back to competitive cricket.'' After surgery, Pant remained in hospital for another 24 days until he was discharged. He remained in Mumbai for a further three weeks, staying in a hotel near the hospital. Then, Pant moved into accommodation by the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, by the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. This would remain his home for most of 2023. Pant returned to the Academy gym virtually every day, doing two sessions with physiotherapists or strength and conditioning coaches. Initially, these sessions were two hours each; within weeks, at Pant's request, they extended to 3½ hours each. The regime was a combination of strenuous exercise in the gym and long sessions of aqua therapy in the swimming pool. The programme had three phases: restoring range of movement; strengthening muscles; and finally regaining balance and agility. 'His whole aim was 'Get me back to normalcy as fast as possible',' Pardiwala remembers. 'And we were trying to make sure that we were doing just the optimum, not too little, but not too much. 'His recovery was much faster than we had anticipated. He was like: 'Nothing is too much.' He pushed harder than normal people.' Pant defied prognosis by four months From the very first discussions that he had with Pardiwala in Mumbai, Pant made it clear that he intended not only to return to elite cricket, but also to regain his place behind the stumps. This aim made his recovery programme more onerous. 'As a wicketkeeper, you have to squat hundreds of times a day,' Pardiwala explains. 'So we needed to get that capability.' Pardiwala recalls a conversation between Ricky Ponting, who was then his head coach at Delhi Capitals, and Pant. Ponting suggested that Pant initially return as a specialist batsman alone. 'Rishabh turned around and said: 'No, there's no way that I'm getting back to elite-level cricket as just a batsman. I want to enjoy my keeping and so I'm not going to get back just as a batsman, I will get back when I can bat and when I can keep wicket too.'' Pardiwala had originally told Pant that the best scenario was to make a full return within 18 months. Yet he made his return in a warm-up within 14 months of the crash. In March 2024, 14 months and three weeks after the accident, Pant returned to professional cricket, in the Indian Premier League. Pant got an emotional standing ovation as he walked out to bat for the first time. Unassumingly, he regained his form from before the crash, averaging 40.5 in the 2024 IPL season and keeping wicket in every match, too. 'He was diving around like crazy,' Pardiwala recalls. When he made his Test return, against Bangladesh, Pant marked his comeback with a century. WELCOME BACK TO RED BALL CRICKET AFTER 21 LONG MONTHS, RISHABH PANT...!!! - A swashbuckling 34 ball fifty by Pant. — Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) September 7, 2024 While Pant, now 27, is as ebullient on the field as before his crash, he is a subtly different person off the field now. 'He recognises the fact that he was extremely lucky to be alive,' Pardiwala says. 'He's so motivated as a cricketer. 'If you knew the Rishabh before this happened, he's a much more mature human being. He's very philosophical now. He appreciates life and everything that goes around it. That typically happens to anyone who's faced death in the face. Someone who's had a near-death experience often gets life into perspective.' Pant's enforced break could ultimately mean that he plays more for India. Shane Warne's year-long absence from international cricket, for very different reasons – he was banned for a year for taking a banned diuretic – lengthened his own career. 'I'm sure he's going to be fitter now because he's realising the importance of it. A lot of athletes become much better after a big surgery than ever before. 'The difference is fitness levels. They were never exposed to those kinds of high levels of fitness and rehabilitation; even if they were exposed to it, they didn't understand the importance of it. 'He always worked at his fitness, I'm sure, but I think he worked more at his skills initially, and probably a little less at the fitness part of it. But now he realises the importance of fitness. So he's working out and making sure that all aspects of his body are strengthened enough. I think that gives him then the confidence to do what he does on the field.' So much confidence, indeed, that Pant celebrated the first of his twin centuries at Headingley with a hand spring: the same celebration that he used to mark a century in the IPL last month. The pyrotechnics reflect one of Pant's childhood loves. Rishabh Pant reaching 100 in the Rishabh Pant way 🔥6️⃣ "This fella is BOX OFFICE." 🍿 — Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) June 21, 2025 'Rishabh trained as a gymnast – and so although he looks large, he is quite agile, and he does have a lot of flexibility,' says Pardiwala. 'And that's why he's been doing those somersaults of late. 'It's a well-practised and perfected move – unnecessary though!' But not to a man with Pant's sense of theatre.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
Must I supply bank statements to insurers after a car accident?
Dear Alex, A lady crashed into my car two weeks ago, after which her husband called to let me know that their insurer would be in touch. Ten minutes later, the phone rang – it was the 'accident claim line'. I presumed they had been instructed by the other party's insurers, so I signed the documents they sent. I now realise that this was actually a claims management company, called accidentally by the lady's husband. They wrote off my car and I asked them to pick up the hire car cost, but they are now asking for bank statements, which they say the third-party insurer requires. I don't feel comfortable sending these, but I'm worried that if I don't they will invalidate the agreement I signed and leave me liable for a big bill. What should I do? – VH Dear VH, Your experience highlights the importance of being certain of precisely who you are dealing with – as well as what paperwork one is signing. It sounds as though you have indeed engaged a claims management company by mistake. These companies operate by handling non-fault insurance claims on your behalf, as an alternative to your insurance company doing so. They say that their dedicated service often results in much faster resolutions for their customers. They also take care of all the arrangements for you – whereas some insurers require you to take action and then have the bill sent to them. That said, some claims management companies can be a bit sneaky in the way they get your business, setting up adverts on Google that pop up when you search for popular insurance companies' claims lines. The name of the company is often intentionally left off the website and, as in your case, they simply refer to themselves as an 'accident helpline' on the phone. Less diligent claimants have no idea they aren't dealing with their insurance company Once you have reported a claim to them, they send you a contract to sign, in which you undertake to let them handle the claim for you. Usually, at this point, their name is mentioned; that should be your first clue you aren't dealing directly with an insurer. In your defence, however, some insurance companies do farm out claims management to such companies, per your initial assumption, in which case you'd be presented with very similar paperwork. Usually, however, this is only offered as an option, so the important thing to do is to first make sure you've had contact from the insurance company rather than another party. Either way, once you have signed the contract you're tied in and have to see the process through unless you want to risk liability for the cost of the claim. Why do they want bank statements? Usually, you'll sign a credit hire agreement for the hire car. This document says that you are responsible for the cost of the hire fees, but that the claims management company will seek to claim back the cost of the hire car from the third party. Usually, that's what happens, but if you breach the agreement, the cost – which can run into thousands – will fall back on you. With these hire cars, the cost is charged to the third-party insurer at exceedingly high rates; that's where the profit margin lies for the claims management firms. Naturally, an insurer usually challenges the necessity of the hire car; the claims management firm then asks for your bank statements, to forward on as proof that you couldn't have afforded the hire car yourself. Unfortunately, I think the best thing you can do in your situation is to send the paperwork they're requesting, follow the process through to the end and chalk this one up to experience.
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
‘I still have shards in my leg', says ex-Rangers supremo Sir David Murray as he breaks 50-year silence on car crash hell
Sir David Murray is speaking in detail about the nightmare for the first time 'THE UNTOLD STORY' 'I still have shards in my leg', says ex-Rangers supremo Sir David Murray as he breaks 50-year silence on car crash hell SIR David Murray has revealed how he still has shards in his leg from the wreckage of the sports car that nearly killed him in a horror crash almost half a century ago. The ex-Rangers owner was just 24 when he had both legs amputated after the flash motor careered into a tree following a tyre blow-out in 1976. Advertisement 10 Sir David Murray has broken his decades long silence on his horror car crash 10 Ex-Rangers owner pictured with then-manager Walter Smith Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd 10 Sir David Murray shared the details in his new book, Mettle Despite the horrific accident, he refused to let the ordeal define him and went on to become a towering figure in Scottish society through his metals business and Ibrox tenure. But everything could have been very different had medics not been able to save his life after he crashed near Longniddry, East Lothian, while driving home in his purple Lotus Elite after playing rugby. Speaking in detail about the nightmare for the first time in new book Mettle: Tragedy, Courage & Titles , he said: 'As I made my way along a dual carriageway, the front left tyre just blew. 'There was nothing I could have done. Advertisement 'The car lurched to the side, I left the road and smashed headlong into a tree. 'Memories of the exact moment are hazy. 'The vehicle was made of fibreglass and the impact forced the engine block right through the facia and into the driver and passenger seat. 'I was immediately shunted right through the door and lay unconscious and bleeding next to the wreckage. Advertisement 'A number of rugby supporters who had actually been at the game stopped their cars and raced to my side. 'There was lots of blood and they applied tourniquets with their ties to try to halt the flow. 'They somehow kept me alive and even though I can remember nothing about it, an ambulance was called and arrived quickly to take me 18 miles to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.' 10 A newspaper clipping from the time of Sir David's horror crash Advertisement 10 Sir David had his legs amputated following the crash Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd 10 The ex-Rangers supremo was able to phone his late wife Louise to tell her he was 'in a bad way' Despite his life hanging in the balance, Sir David was able to phone his late wife Louise from a payphone while on a hospital trolley and said 'you have to come. I'm in a bad way.' Incredibly, he lost 13 pints of blood on the first evening and medics immediately amputated parts of his 'mangled' legs through the knees. Advertisement Tragically, he then caught an infection which forced the docs to take off even more of his shattered limbs. He said: 'Louise, my family and friends took turns to sit by my bedside during the following days as I struggled to recover. 'The anaesthetist Ned Trench and a surgeon fought to give me a better chance of a partial recovery, but five days after the accident they were finally defeated after an infection set in. 'I ended up having a further nine inches of my legs removed.' Advertisement SIR DAVID MURRAY: A TIMELINE 1951 - Born in Ayr 1974 - Founds Murray International Metals aged 23 1976 - Loses both legs in a car crash 1984 - Awarded Young Scottish Businessman of the Year 1988 - Buys Rangers FC for £6million 1989 - Rangers win the first of a record-equalling nine successive league titles and buy first high profile Catholic, Maurice Johnston, for £1.5m from under the noses of Celtic. 1991: Walter Smith succeeds Graeme Souness as manager. 1992 - Wife Louise - mum of their two sons - dies after a cancer battle. 1993: Rangers sign Duncan Ferguson for a record transfer fee between British clubs of £4million. 1995: Paul Gascoigne signs for a club record £4.3m. 1998: Dick Advocaat is appointed manager and club break their transfer record three times that summer by signing Arthur Numan (£4.5m), Giovanni van Bronckhorst (£5m) and Andrei Kanchelskis (£5.5m). Murray declares that for 'every £5 Celtic spend, we will spend £10.' 2000: Rangers smash transfer record by signing Tore Andre Flo from Chelsea for £12m. 2001: Murray Park is opened at a cost of £14m. 2007 - Knighted for services to business 2009 - Sir David steps down as Rangers chairman and as a member of the board, with the club having won 15 titles and 21 cups during his tenure May 2011 - He sells his controlling interest in Rangers for £1 to Wavetower Limited, owned by businessman Craig Whyte. Incredibly, Sir David said he still has some of the purple bodywork from his Lotus embedded in his upper limb - and the tree that took the brunt of the crash also still has the marks almost 50 years on. He said: 'How that tree is still standing I don't know, but remarkably it is. I recently stopped at the same spot again and nearly 50 years after the accident, there are still marks on the base of the tree. 'Equally amazingly, there are also still purple shards of the car's bodywork embedded in my upper leg. 'Revisiting the scene much, much later, I realised that just a few yards before the tree and a few yards after it, there was nothing but open fields.' Advertisement After he was stabilised, Sir David - who was once estimated to have a £500m fortune - was transferred to the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh for ten weeks of intensive care. The budding entrepreneur was left pondering his future over and over again - but his inner steel drove him towards recovery and, ultimately, huge success. And he now uses his experiences to offer advice to others at their lowest ebb. 10 Under Sir David's stewardship, the Ibrox side saw a period of unparalleled success Advertisement 10 Sir David saw a period of great success along with manager Graeme Souness Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd He said: 'I must have spent days and hours wondering how I might cope with the rest of my life. 'I was still a young man, with a wife and young family and I was passionate about business and playing sports.' 'In life, I never try to look back. Advertisement 'We all have decisions to make – some of them big, reflective moments – and I am a great believer in the fact that you either turn left or you turn right. 'If anyone I know is ever in trouble or facing adversity, I always tell them that every problem has a solution and to always look ahead. 'Be decisive. Stay positive. I had no intention of quitting.' Sir David, 73, became a millionaire with company Murray International Metals and purchased Rangers for £6million in 1988. Advertisement INSPIRATIONAL LETTER AN inspirational letter from hero World War II pilot Sir Douglas Bader helped in the ex-Rangers chief's remarkable recovery from his double amputation hell. Sir Douglas wrote to the then 24-year-old Sir David as he faced up to a lifetime without his limbs following the horror crash in 1976. He still treasures the note sent to him out of the blue nearly 50 years ago and has it framed in his home. Bader was a highly decorated flyer during WW2 despite losing his legs during aerobatics in 1931. The letter read: ''I gather that you have got hold of the problem and decided to get on with life which is the only thing to do. 'Well done. 'That is the only attitude of mind to adopt. 'I just wanted to write to you and tell you how much I admire your courage and to wish you well.' Sir David added: 'I would later telephone the number he had left at the top of his letter to thank him for his encouragement and tell him exactly what it meant to me… and still does. 'Almost two months earlier, I had what Douglas Bader might enthusiastically have described as a rather miraculous escape. It was certainly life-changing.' Under his stewardship, the club embarked on a period of unparalleled success with iconic managers Graeme Souness and Walter Smith - and fan favourites Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup. He was also instrumental in the club smashing their sectarian signing policy by buying their first high profile Catholic player Mo Johnston from under Celtic's noses in 1989. Sir David faced further tragedy in his personal life when beloved first wife Louise - mum to their sons David and Keith - died from cancer in 1992. Dad Ian was also locked up for a spell before dying at 50. Advertisement 10 Sir David pictured with Richard Brandson 10 Sir David pictured with his mum, second wife Kae Tinto and son after being knighted by the Queen in 2007 Credit: Andrew Barr - The Sun Glasgow He split from second wife Kae Tinto in 2018 after seven years of marriage and is now understood to split his time between Perthshire and France, where he owns vineyards. He remains the chairman of Murray Capital Group and his sons play key roles in the running of the business. Advertisement - Mettle: Tragedy, Courage & Titles by Sir David Murray, is on sale Thursday July 3 from Amazon and all good bookshops. Preorder on Amazon here. Sir David is donating his royalties to Erskine Hospital.
