Oink

You all make very good points.

Pizzawheel

He was an exciting young cricketer. Horrible freak accident by the sound of it.

Thoughts to the bowler too who will be going through hell.

Tirytory

You can't eliminate risk in anything you do...you might not think about cricket being one of those risky sports but clearly it carries some risk even if it is probably minimal compared to others. I'm sure someone at some point has done some sort of risk analysis on risk of injury and wearing protective head gear.

Someone died from a cricket ball to the head in the town where I lived in the UK. I guess you need to be in the media for people to start shaking their heads about it.

MillieF

When you say Oink...the "innocence of the sport" it is exactly that! I did, in a former life, go out with/associate with a number of Rugby players, there were always problems...each match would bring a challenge....I visited many hospitals.

This lad stood there and took a horrible ball to the back of his head, had he not done so he could have been speaking on a mobile phone whilst somebody drove into the back of his car. In the midst of life we are in death. It was an accident, and a tragic one at that.

orly

Without appearing dismissive it's really "just one of those things". I don't think cricketers (or fans) want them to be running around looking like ice hockey goalies.

Oink

I don't think I'll ever look at "hostile bowling" with the same affection.

MillieF

You will, so would he....doing something you really love isn't that the way it's meant to be.?

Oakvillian

Of course. I really feel for the bowler, I hope Cricket Australia is providing the counselling and support that he will undoubtedly need.

When everything's calmed down a bit, though, I can't help feeling, in my cynical way, that his teammates have a great potential sledge in the slip cordon next year. "You okay there, batsman? Having a little wobble on the rising ball, there? Don't be too keen to shoulder arms or duck under it - remember what happened to the last bloke that tried that?..."

Or are Aussies getting too New Age and sensitive for that sort of thing these days?

</too_soon>

JamesM

No disrespect to the 70's and 80's but the bowling is a lot faster now and people can do more with the ball.

It's a freak incident but none the less I don't think banning the bouncer would do the game any harm.

A hard rounded object coming at an individuals head at speeds of 100 mph is going to cause more and more serious injuries as more bowlers arrive at that point with evolution.

Why not make it safer now and save the next batsman.

Hawkmoon77

Bowling faster now ? !!!

Don't tell Jeff Thomson, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Dennis Lillee.....

It's true that a batsman may be more likely to be injured because of the advent of the expectation to score off almost every ball. In the 70s / 80s it was quite acceptable to duck.

Remember Hughes was struck as he attempted to hook the ball - not to duck it. Very good points are made upthread about the difficulties in banning the bouncer - what if the batsman ducks *into* a short ball ? (Not uncommon). Banning bouncers would not stop this.

The facts remain - more international cricketers have been shot than killed by a bouncer. Of course helmets should be looked at to improve, yes we should try to make cricket as safe as possible, but banning bouncers ? No.

One final point, bouncers are limited now to 1 per over. They weren't in the 70s.

Pizzawheel

This made me sad and smile at the same time

Shard

Is this evolution of bowling technique? How much faster has it become, and how do the bowlers achieve it?

JamesM

So eradicating them completely would be no problem then.

Hawkmoon77

Yes it would. At present, the one thing stopping any half decent batsman playing almost exclusively from the front foot is the threat of a short ball. Take that away and you diminish the bowlers options.

My point was that no cricketers died in the 1970s when bouncers were not limited. As you noted, it was a freak accident, nothing more.

According to NSAA there are 41 deaths per year from skiing.
source :https://www.nsaa.org/media/68045/NSA...ty-10-1-12.pdf

Ban skiing down steep bits ? Only on the flat ?

A knee jerk reaction to a tragic accident is the worst thing to do in the circumstances, and not one to honour Hughes' memory.

JamesM

Ski-ing is an extreme sport.

Crap example.