Delhi: In the list of deaths related to playing cricket, one of the deaths which was mourned by the entire cricket world is the death of Australian cricketer Phil Hughes. It has been 10 years since this death. It was November 27 in 2014 when Khabbu batsman Hughes (who was then just 25 years old) died. Just two days earlier, while playing for South Australia against New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground during a Sheffield Shield match, he was hit by a short-pitched ball from Sean Abbott just above the neck and below the ear. He suffered such an injury that he suffered a brain hemorrhage and collapsed there. Emergency surgery was performed at Vincent Hospital, but despite every effort, Hughes died.
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This death was discussed all over the world. The situation was that Australian cricketers were not ready to play cricket soon and due to this the program of Australia-India series was changed. Phillip Hughes himself played 26 Tests, 25 ODIs and 1 T20 International.
The most special thing is the effect of this death. Then Hughes’ death raised questions about the safety of players, especially the equipment used for safety in cricket. Till now no one had paid much attention to saving the neck and the visible part above it. In every discussion there was only talk of saving one’s head. So the question is, what changed after Hughes’ death?
This death forced the ICC, which is responsible for the governance of cricket, to think about the safety of the players. New laws were made, conditions improved and the most important thing was that bowlers were forced to think that fast bowling does not mean targeting the batsman’s head.
- Improved helmet design for better protection. Now stem guard has been added to cricket helmets for more protection. Since then, the incidence of fatal injuries due to ball strikes has decreased.
- To prevent such incidents in future, more attention was paid to concussion protocol. The Concussion Substitute Law was enacted in Test cricket, allowing a similar option for a player suffering a head injury and failing a concussion test.
- The thought was given to the mental pressure/fear that playing in front of such danger would put on the players.
- A new debate broke out on bouncers in cricket. In 2021, the MCC created a global platform to discuss short-pitch delivery laws. Next year, MCC considered the role of bouncer in cricket as special and did not change the law. Bouncers are still thrown, but are less dangerous than before.
In these last 10 years, whenever a ball hits a batsman’s helmet, the first thing we remember is what happened to Hughes. This is what happened when Steve Smith fell to the ground due to a bouncer from Jofra Archer at Lord’s in 2019. Now it is known how hard the cricket ball is. Hughes’s captain and close friend Michael Clarke had such an impact that when a ball from Mitchell Johnson hit Kohli’s helmet a few days later in the Adelaide Test, Johnson was afraid that what happened to Hughes would happen?
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