"I cannot sit and watch a whole World Cup game," he said. "I'll watch bits and pieces. But then I leave the room … because I can't watch any more. It's too painful." His wife Haley adds: "It breaks my heart because I see the look on his face as he's watching it. He desperately would love to stay involved. He has done nothing wrong. But cricket has wiped its hands of him." Bracken made his Test debut in 2003 against India in Brisbane and donned the baggy green fives times. But it was as a limited overs specialist that he made his mark. In 2008, he was ranked the world's No.1, one day international bowler. He went on to play 116 times for his country before a recurring knee injury sidelined him. In 2010, a year after his last appearance in England, Bracken approached Cricket Australia about the insurance arrangements it had in place to underwrite bills for his ongoing surgery and treatment. "I didn't question it. I just expected it," he recalled, adding: "That's how it is, right? If you get hurt doing something at work, it's all good because there is a system in place to assist you. But there wasn't even as much as a discussion. I pretty much got laughed out of the room." Bracken engaged lawyers and said: "As soon as that started, I was immediately isolated from everything involved with cricket."

He scrambled to explain his predicament to his peers, but said his voice fell on deaf ears, including Cricket NSW which, he claims, was ordered by Cricket Australia to cut all ties. "When you give as much time to a job, and to a sport you love, this was a really tough thing to cop," he said. Bracken said that unlike the "overwhelming support" that enveloped Wests Tigers forward Simon Dwyer, from within the NRL community, after he sustained career ending injuries in 2011, his own "cricketing family" – including teammates – deserted him, "too scared" to join him in questioning the system – and elitist culture – that cloaks the sport. "With cricket, it's like, 'you can't possibly do that'," he said. These expenses should not be subsidised by the Australian taxpayer. Former federal sports minister Peter Dutton As Bracken and his wife delved deeper, they found that Cricket Australia had been instructing players, in contracts, to claim for injuries on Medicare and their own private health insurance, which it further specified, had to include "top level cover" and "top level extras cover" in order for the organisation to agree to pay the gap "difference".

Last year, the couple met then Federal Health Minister Peter Dutton and presented evidence that demonstrated that for more than four decades taxpayers had covered "millions of dollars worth of bills", relating to cricket insurance claims. Mr Dutton has since written to Cricket Australia, and all other national sporting organisations to address "the issue of appropriate health cover for players" including the "claiming of Medicare and private health insurance benefits". And in a letter to the Brackens, he revealed he had issued cricket's ruling authority – and all other sporting groups – with an October 2017 deadline to introduce "suitable insurance arrangements". "These expenses should not be subsidised by the Australian taxpayer," Mr Dutton said. But he went on to state the "recovery" of the benefits which "may have been improperly paid in the past" would be "very difficult" to identify because the claims were all made against standard Medicare item numbers, with no indication of the nature of the injury being treated. Today, Nathan Bracken walks with a limp. He is unable to kick a ball around the yard with his son. In the absence of any insurance cover during his own time of need, he told Fairfax Media "his only option" is to now sue Cricket Australia for the costs incurred over the past five years.

Both he and his wife acknowledge that if they are unsuccessful, they stand to "lose everything". "We had a property we were going to build a house on when Nathan retired … we've sold that. We've sold two cars to consolidate. Now we face losing our house out of the court case," Mrs Bracken said. Bracken, meanwhile, said while it was never his original intention to take on a wider crusade, namely the welfare of future cricketers, he realised "something needed to be done". "When the appropriate insurance policy [for cricketers] is finally introduced, nothing changes for me ... we won't benefit whatsoever. But hopefully for Joe Smith who bursts onto the scene in five years' time, it will make all the difference," he said. A Cricket Australia spokesman said it could not comment for legal reasons.

Email: eduff@fairfax.com.au