He had been selected to represent Pakistan in squash's first World Team Championship, and was on a train travelling from Quetta to Karachi for the final training camp when he leaned too far out of a railway carriage door and struck his head against a signal post.

[1] In later years, as he established himself as a top player on the international scene, Hiddy felt that he did not receive proper support from the Pakistani squash authorities.

He thus chose to go on a tour of South Africa during the apartheid era for purely financial reasons.

As a result, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1978 (he was able to secure permission to do so partly because of his British wife), and became Britain's top player through to 1984.

Hiddy played an important role in helping to groom the young Jahangir, who went on to become the dominant player in the game in the 1980s.