Phil Hughes.......Terrible

Passed away early hours of this morning.......R.I.P

 

That is truly dreadful news. Cricket will never seem the same again. So sad. RIP Phil......

 

Very sad news.

Ironically tragic that his cricketing weakness ultimately led to his death. An inability to play the short ball.

I just hope the thing that comes from this is not a blaming of helmet design, but a new found respect from players for the ball and the importance of watching it properly.

 

Shocking news. RIP

 

Complete freak accident, ssn just had the doctor from the hospital on said there has only been 100 reported cases of that head injury ever. I feel sorry for the bowler Shaun Abbott he must be going through hell too.

 

Ho are I bet he had his eyes closed eh.
He did what cricketers do and tried getting out of the way, all it is as a game is 90% of the time leving the ball to go past ducking and moving the bat out of the way, he did what he's been coached to do.


RIP PHILLIP

 

He probably did have his eyes closed yes. But that's a bodily reaction, not a coached action. If you watch the ball properly, you'll struggle to get hit on the neck because your head is facing forward and the helmet will then do its job.

Tragic accident. But one due to poor technique, sad but true.

 

Have you ever watched the game ? It's just a game of get out of the way leave it let it go, that's all it is, don't tell me they're not coached to do it, because it's plain to see they are.

 

I watch the game constantly, i go to tests matches and odi's every year and i played the game to the point of country trials for yorkshire, so i'm probably pretty well placed to have a view on such a thing.

You're coached to watch the ball and never to turn your back on it. If going down leg side you rock to the off side while ducking under it to allow it over your shoulder. If veering to off, you sway back to leg. But keeping your eyes on it til the point you know what its doing.

If hooking, you get outside the line of the ball so it can't hit you if you miss it.

My point is, with more protection, players haven't given the ball the respect its due. Even tail enders. I believe that player malaise has sadly taken a cricketing life.

 

How do you know all that then ? Because you've been coached in ways of letting the ball go, which is what I'm saying that's the game. He done what they do tried getting out of the way

 

I'd agree with DWLc on this. The respect shown for the ball has changed due to the protection worn.

Terrible news. RIP Phil Hughes.

 

I'd prefer to see a helmet design that would prevent this. I haven't seen this lad play so I'll take your word for it that his weakness was the short ball. I realise such an injury is rare, but it wouldn't hurt to have a helmet designed to prevent this kind of injury would it?

Deaths in Formula One used to be common place. As they constantly changed the safety features on the car, deaths got fewer and fewer. By the mid 80s it looked as though they'd cracked it. A couple of drivers died in 1982 and one in testing in 1986. Then we had 8 years with no casualties which was unprecedented. It looked like we could start calling the sport safe and that driver deaths were rare. Then, at the San Marion Grand Prix in 1994 we lost Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger in one weekend. This resulted in the most radical overhaul of safety features the sport has ever known. An F1 driver hasn't been killed since.* The new safety features have not impacted on the spectacle of the sport. IMHO this season was boring, the Mercedes car was so much better than everyone else you knew before the race started there could only be one of two winners. However, there have been some brilliant seasons since the safety features were introduced and they are constantly being refined.

F1 thought it had got it right, but that weekend in 1994 showed they could do more. Deaths in cricket are rare (at professional level), the injury sustained by Phil Hughes is apparently very rare at any level, but I see no reason why refinements to safety equipment that could prevent injury or death should not be introduced. Safety in all sport tackles the obvious failings first, and when these have been addressed it's time to move on to dealing with incidents that only happen very occasionally. If a helmet can be designed that could prevent the type of injury that Phil Hughes sustained I can't see any reason not to wear one.

*María de Villota died in 2013 after a crash in an F1 car over a year earlier. However, she appeared to have recovered and had started making public appearances again before she died of a heart attack. The crash itself was a weird one. She'd been doing straight-line testing for the Marussia team. She was only travelling about 30 miles an hour when she hit the back of a stationary truck.

 

Its a fair few years ago now, so cricket pads, gloves, bats and protective wear have changed massively in that time.

It's a very easy thing to say change the helmet. The problem you have, the helmet is (was) pretty heavy, so it immediately restricts your speed of head movement and its a strange feeling to be so enclosed with a grill in front of you. If you extend that to the neck area, even if helmets are much more lightweight, it is likely to affect movement adversely. And with a ball travelling at 85mph, your best attribute is speed of thought and speed and accuracy of movement.

As i came through the ranks at school and the youth leagues, i chose not to wear a helmet (but then i was quite small til my late teens so i was agile and could easily avoid aggressive bowling).

It's something you get used to i'm sure. But it massively affects your range of vision, and i found i couldn't judge the ball as well through such a narrow slot, especially if the ball was full (so beneath your natural line of sight, or above, from a short ball.

Now, you probably aren't even allowed not to wear a helmet.

Hughes came over here in 2009 with a growing reputation. England bowlers targetted him with the short ball and he was eventually dropped as we won the ashes 2-1. He faded from the test arena and then was brought back as a remodelled cricketer for the 2013 ashes down under. Again, he didn't last long having been targetted with the short ball as he fended at things while turning his head away.

He was also lambasted (by australian media in particular) for claiming a catch that fell a good foot short.

It's a tragedy, undoubtedly. as i touched on previously, i just hope players respect the ball more and treat it accordingly.

 

sorry mate ive just created a thread on this. i didnt see yours till now. anywho rip phil hughes. such a sad way to go playing the game he loves.

 

I played cricket for our school team. I wasn't very good. We didn't even have helmets, so couldn't make the choice! Thinking back, I'm astonished they allowed this. We were very inexperienced cricketers and I know one lad got a severe crack on the nut. This wasn't from bowler delivering a bouncer or a beamer, but his mate at the other end who took a wild swing, connected, and the ball flew straight back up the wicket and hit this lad on the head.

I'm pretty sure I played against Darren Gough when I was a kid. I lasted one ball, as did the majority of our team. I think we were all out for under ten runs. If it wasn't Darren Gough, it was another amazingly gifted cricketer who bowled much, much faster than anything I'd ever seen before. Or not seen, I simply didn't see the ball that hit my wicket. I was stood there, he came running in and before I blinked the stumps behind me disintegrated. Seems madness that I was sent in to face that with one pad on me front leg, the thickness of cardboard, one glove that wouldn't protect you from being hit by a tennis ball, no helmet and no box. I'm glad he aimed for the wicket and not me.

 

Haha, i can almost imagine the sound of knocking knees!

My debut as a thirteen y/o in my first match against "proper mesters" was against a side called "Caribbean"

I never faced any team as intimidating or fast again. They weren't especially accurate which made it all the more difficult to prepare for what was coming. Absolutely loved it though. All the more because they didn't hold back against a kid only just taller than the stumps!

 

Probably wasn't Goughie if it was genuinely quick mate. He was a medium pace swing bowler as a youngster. A good one, but I'd say I was a good 15-20mph quicker than he was at the time.

 

That is tragic news, so sad. RIP Phil.

 

Agree with that saw him a few times play for Monk Bretton I think as a nip and he were only medium paced.

 

Medium pace but to a young poor batsman it may have seemed a lot faster.