The incident where Australian batsman Phil Huges died, after being hit by a bouncer in spite of wearing a helmet has really shocked the entire world of cricket. Phil Huges was really a promising cricketer who could have served Australian cricket for a long time . The youngster hit a century in each innings of his debut Test match, again in his debut one dayer he hit a century.
Huges was hit near the neck area just below the helmet. The blow was so severe that he fainted and fell headfirst onto the ground. He was taken to the the hospital where after struggling with death for hours, he died on Nov 27. This is the first time ever that a player died after being hit by the ball in spite of wearing guards including the helmet. Such deaths are very very rare.17 years ago while fielding in the forward short leg Raman Lamba was hit by the cricket ball and he died because of the impact. But Raman Lamba was not wearing any helmet.
. In the early days of cricket even in 60 s and 70 s players never wore helmet. The techniques of batsmen was good enough to negotiate bouncers and short pitched stuff. While other guards were there but they were not of the same quality as today. In those days it used to be only 5 day cricket, the main focus of the batsman was not to score runs but to stay on the crease and then make runs at every possible opportunity. Times changed one day cricket came in the pressure on the batsmen to score runs increased as a result new shots came into the game. Batsmen started taking more risks as time was limited in 50 over cricket the focus of the batsmen was to score runs as fast as they can specially at the beginning and the end of the innings. New experimentations came into the game teams experimented with pinch hitters or sending someone in the opening slot who would get after the bowling right from the word go.
Again to make the one day format interesting and prevent bowlers from using the bouncers as a ploy to stop runs, bouncers were totally banned from one day cricket. This lead to a generation of batsman who are less technically sound, but are capable of scoring fast. Later on of course one bouncer an over was introduced that gave some teeth to the bowler.
As if one day cricket was not fast enough , a completely new version of the game Twenty-Twenty cricket was introduced. Each team got 20 overs each to bat. Now since the introduction of this format of the game batting styles have changed in a big way . The scoring became even more faster there is hardly any ball left by the batsmen these days, even when a bowler bowls a bouncer a batsman has to go for a shot since leaving the bouncer would mean losing a ball and if batsmen of a team leave all bouncers bowled that would mean that they would have left 20 balls in other words 3.2 overs out of the 20 overs won't had been scored of . Something no team can afford.
Playing this way over the years players are into the habit of scoring fast and this transpires even into the longer version of the game. Coupled with lack of proper defensive technique and an urge to score runs fast, players today get hit on the helmet quite frequently. But no one ever thought that someone would be hurt so badly on the neck , so badly that it would eventually lead to death. When you think about possible fatal injuries from the cricket ball you think about the head, the abdomen but never the neck.
The injury that happened to Philip Huges was extremely unfortunate and very very rare. May the almighty give peace to his soul and I just hope such an incident never ever happens again.
Huges was hit near the neck area just below the helmet. The blow was so severe that he fainted and fell headfirst onto the ground. He was taken to the the hospital where after struggling with death for hours, he died on Nov 27. This is the first time ever that a player died after being hit by the ball in spite of wearing guards including the helmet. Such deaths are very very rare.17 years ago while fielding in the forward short leg Raman Lamba was hit by the cricket ball and he died because of the impact. But Raman Lamba was not wearing any helmet.
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| Philip Huges |
. In the early days of cricket even in 60 s and 70 s players never wore helmet. The techniques of batsmen was good enough to negotiate bouncers and short pitched stuff. While other guards were there but they were not of the same quality as today. In those days it used to be only 5 day cricket, the main focus of the batsman was not to score runs but to stay on the crease and then make runs at every possible opportunity. Times changed one day cricket came in the pressure on the batsmen to score runs increased as a result new shots came into the game. Batsmen started taking more risks as time was limited in 50 over cricket the focus of the batsmen was to score runs as fast as they can specially at the beginning and the end of the innings. New experimentations came into the game teams experimented with pinch hitters or sending someone in the opening slot who would get after the bowling right from the word go.
Again to make the one day format interesting and prevent bowlers from using the bouncers as a ploy to stop runs, bouncers were totally banned from one day cricket. This lead to a generation of batsman who are less technically sound, but are capable of scoring fast. Later on of course one bouncer an over was introduced that gave some teeth to the bowler.
As if one day cricket was not fast enough , a completely new version of the game Twenty-Twenty cricket was introduced. Each team got 20 overs each to bat. Now since the introduction of this format of the game batting styles have changed in a big way . The scoring became even more faster there is hardly any ball left by the batsmen these days, even when a bowler bowls a bouncer a batsman has to go for a shot since leaving the bouncer would mean losing a ball and if batsmen of a team leave all bouncers bowled that would mean that they would have left 20 balls in other words 3.2 overs out of the 20 overs won't had been scored of . Something no team can afford.
Playing this way over the years players are into the habit of scoring fast and this transpires even into the longer version of the game. Coupled with lack of proper defensive technique and an urge to score runs fast, players today get hit on the helmet quite frequently. But no one ever thought that someone would be hurt so badly on the neck , so badly that it would eventually lead to death. When you think about possible fatal injuries from the cricket ball you think about the head, the abdomen but never the neck.
The injury that happened to Philip Huges was extremely unfortunate and very very rare. May the almighty give peace to his soul and I just hope such an incident never ever happens again.
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