Phillip Hughes Death

[Aractus]

Phillip Hughes would have been 26 today. I can't imagine how his friends and the other players must be feeling - it really does your head in. He didn't know that he was going to die when he lost consciousness - his last thoughts might have been something optimistic. He had 26 years, that's longer than some people have. It's 9 years longer than my old friend Trevor who died shortly after turning 17 - who also didn't know that he was going to die, he simply collapsed and died. He's only around the 12th person to die on the pitch, and some players who died playing cricket were never stuck by the ball but instead suffered heart attacks.

I think though what resonates with people is the fact that this was a good person, he had no enemies, he never did anyone any harm, and he was loved by all. A beautiful person, the tragic injury could not have happened to less deserving person.

There are only 7 other reported cases of people dying on the cricket field as a result of being struck by the ball. Some of the deaths (eg Raman Lamba and Darryn Randall) could have been prevented if the players had been wearing helmets. Phillip was not wearing the latest helmet design (mainly because players don't want to wear it):



It's not likely, but the newer design could have made the difference between life and death as it does provide more neck protection. It is very difficult to provide neck protection for the obvious reason that the player still needs to be able to freely move his head. Also, in my experience watching cricket it's very rare that a batter gets hit by the ball on their head in the first place - they usually duck out of the way or avoid it or attempt a pull-shot (as Phillip was attempting to do).

No other cricketer has ever been documented to die from the same injury whilst playing cricket. There is only one other known case of the same injury (vertebral artery dissection leading to subarachnoid haemorrhage) occurring from a cricket ball, and it occurred in Melbourne in 1993 in a net-training session, it was not first class cricket either and so received no media attention. Essentially, the ball bounced in an unexpected manner and the batter (in the nets) was unable to avoid it, and died the following day in hospital from the injury. I expect he also would have been wearing a helmet (they are after all compulsory), but it's largely irrelevant because the ball struck an unprotected area of the neck.

There is also discussion of course about injuries. And the fact that there have been a number of cricketers hit in the eye with the ball, for example:



This is possible because the ball is able to fit between the grille and visor of the helmet. It is not fatal of course, but the injuries are still horrific.