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Phillip Hughes has passed away at the age of 25

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14,795
So they've gone from cuddling Sean Abbott outside the hospital to question standard cricketing tactics employed at all levels of the game around the world.

I understand that as his family, the nature and untimeliness (if that's a word,) of his death would be extremely devastating and difficult to process but trying to apportion blame to a bowler who engaged in a standard sledge and question the tactics employed which are standard for a bloke who has issues with the short ball. Where do you stop here? If you apportion blame to Bollinger for sledging, do you go after Abbott for the delivery, Haddin for the tactics, Taufel for allowing the bowling and if we're being honest, Hughes for attacking a delivery he had clear deficiencies in handling? Honestly, how far do you go?

I know the family are hurting but this just seems like it will only hurt more than it will help.
 

TheParraboy

Moderator
Staff member
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66,142
seriously, how would they know what was said on the pitch ?

Umpires? Possibly Tom Cooper who was batting at the other end? NSW fielder?

Real question is who is the hero who told the parents. Serves absolutely no purpose but more agony and pain for them.
 

TheParraboy

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
66,142
So they've gone from cuddling Sean Abbott outside the hospital to question standard cricketing tactics employed at all levels of the game around the world.

I understand that as his family, the nature and untimeliness (if that's a word,) of his death would be extremely devastating and difficult to process but trying to apportion blame to a bowler who engaged in a standard sledge and question the tactics employed which are standard for a bloke who has issues with the short ball. Where do you stop here? If you apportion blame to Bollinger for sledging, do you go after Abbott for the delivery, Haddin for the tactics, Taufel for allowing the bowling and if we're being honest, Hughes for attacking a delivery he had clear deficiencies in handling? Honestly, how far do you go?

I know the family are hurting but this just seems like it will only hurt more than it will help.


In addition to that, short bowling deficiency, they could also counter act that Hughes wasn't wearing the lastest masuri helmet which was available at the time. Wether this would have helped or not is the question, but we will never know cause he wasn't wearing it. It all just opens up to create more pain for the family, and derail the game of cricket

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket...en-he-was-struck-by-ball-20141125-11txno.html
 

AlwaysGreen

Immortal
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47,824
In addition to that, short bowling deficiency, they could also counter act that Hughes wasn't wearing the lastest masuri helmet which was available at the time. Wether this would have helped or not is the question, but we will never know cause he wasn't wearing it. It all just opens up to create more pain for the family, and derail the game of cricket

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket...en-he-was-struck-by-ball-20141125-11txno.html
That's the point of the inquest. To cover every aspect of what transpired so that it can be worked out what happened, what could have been done differently and what can be done in the future to prevent it from happening again.

It's also a medium for the Hughes family to get answers. I don't agree with what players are being asked but if that's the line of questioning they want their SC to ask then who are we to judge. It's their son after all. Again, I can't see how it will help them in any way but it's their call.
 
Messages
14,795
Umpires? Possibly Tom Cooper who was batting at the other end? NSW fielder?

Real question is who is the hero who told the parents. Serves absolutely no purpose but more agony and pain for them.

I'm thinking Australia's favourite Dutchman might have been talking with his family afterward and may have lamented that he'd never dreamt that what Doug said may have transpired. Could have been innocently uttered while he was in shock afterward.
 

Twizzle

Administrator
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150,753
Umpires? Possibly Tom Cooper who was batting at the other end? NSW fielder?

Real question is who is the hero who told the parents. Serves absolutely no purpose but more agony and pain for them.

Tom Cooper said yesterday at the inquest that The Rug didn't say that he wanted to kill him.
 

Front-Rower

First Grade
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5,297
Did anyone ever die from a blow to the head/neck region with a cricket ball in the era before helmets? (serious question)

Personally, the inquest should be looking at the safety equipment aspect of the game rather than what someone may or may not have said. The possibility to hit someone, deliberately, in the part of the neck where Phil was hit would be extremely rare if not downright impossible. A very, very sad accident occured on the day Phil died. I doubt anyone had planned it and I doubt anyone went out there to kill or hurt anyone. It's just one of those freak accidents that happen in human life.
 

TheParraboy

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66,142
Did anyone ever die from a blow to the head/neck region with a cricket ball in the era before helmets? (serious question)

Personally, the inquest should be looking at the safety equipment aspect of the game rather than what someone may or may not have said. The possibility to hit someone, deliberately, in the part of the neck where Phil was hit would be extremely rare if not downright impossible. A very, very sad accident occured on the day Phil died. I doubt anyone had planned it and I doubt anyone went out there to kill or hurt anyone. It's just one of those freak accidents that happen in human life.


Well said

What about the batsman smacking one into the silly mid on fielder. Ball is coming at greater pace and shorter distance. If there ever is a fatality do we then classify that batsman (and the tactics used) as a killer?
 
Messages
14,795
That's the point of the inquest. To cover every aspect of what transpired so that it can be worked out what happened, what could have been done differently and what can be done in the future to prevent it from happening again.

It's also a medium for the Hughes family to get answers. I don't agree with what players are being asked but if that's the line of questioning they want their SC to ask then who are we to judge. It's their son after all. Again, I can't see how it will help them in any way but it's their call.

Yeah that's fair AG, but it only seems like it's going to wind up being a witch hunt IMO. The knives are already out for Bollinger for saying something that's been uttered a million times before on the cricket field. I've had bowlers tell me they were going to take my head off, it's a standard sledge. For a bloke who really had f**k all to do with the incident itself that precipitated PH's death, they seem to have focused more on him than anyone else.
 

jargan83

Coach
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14,883
Yeah that's fair AG, but it only seems like it's going to wind up being a witch hunt IMO. The knives are already out for Bollinger for saying something that's been uttered a million times before on the cricket field. I've had bowlers tell me they were going to take my head off, it's a standard sledge. For a bloke who really had f**k all to do with the incident itself that precipitated PH's death, they seem to have focused more on him than anyone else.

Likewise, I've had many a bowler say they were going to knock my block off, take my head off etc.

It was a tragic accident and this inquest is a waste of time and probably digging up demons for both the Hughes family and the players and umpires that were at the SCG on the day it happened.
 

some11

Referee
Messages
23,313
http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/1061359.html

Sledging directed at Phillip Hughes and his batting partner Tom Cooper "in no way exacerbated the incident" in which Hughes was fatally injured, the inquest into the batsman's death has been told.

The conclusion by Kristina Stern SC, the counsel assisting the New South Wales Coroner at the inquest, was made after the submission of a new statement by Matthew Day, the former Tasmania batsman and a Sydney club teammate of Hughes' brother Jason Hughes at Mosman. Day, 29, was also a pallbearer at Hughes' funeral in Macksville.

Day's statement corroborated allegations that the fast bowler Doug Bollinger had directed the words "I'm going to kill you" at Hughes and Cooper, highlighting divisions between the Hughes family and the cricket community.

Bollinger and Cooper had both denied these words were uttered, moving Day to make the statement on Tuesday. In it he described events at a wake for Hughes, which occurred at the SCG on November 28, the evening after he died at St Vincent's Hospital.

"Whilst I was at the gathering at the Sydney Cricket Ground, I was with a group of players sitting where the players' seats are in the home dressing room," Day said in the statement, dated October 11, 2016. "There were six or seven players in the group. I can't remember all of the players but Doug Bollinger was one of the group. There was general discussion regarding the circumstances of the match.


"At one stage Doug Bollinger said words to the effect of: 'One of my sledges was 'I am going to kill you'. I can't believe I said that. I've said things like that in the past but I am never going to say it again'."


Day went on to say that when he saw Jason Hughes later in the evening he relayed this words, to which he replied that "Tom Cooper told me the same thing".


The submission of Day's statement caused a flurry of activity in the courtroom on Wednesday, before Stern offered the following words in mitigation. "One of the issues identified in my opening statement was the nature of the play that afternoon and if that in any way exacerbated the injury to Phillip Hughes," she said. "My submission is ... that there is no evidence that any comment or sledging or whatever description you wish to use, exacerbated the injury."

Day's statement also conflicted accounts offered by the NSW captain on the day Brad Haddin, David Warner, Sean Abbott and Doug Bollinger that there were no specific plans to bowl short at Hughes. In it he alleged that Trent Johnston, then the NSW assistant coach and now the state's head coach, had offered a different view.

"I shared a taxi with Trent Johnston [who] said words to the effect of 'I am struggling with the fact that I was a big part of the plan that New South Wales adopted, that was to bowl short to Phil, and that eventually ended with him being struck'."

In response to the new allegations, Cricket Australia outlined the process by which witness statements and testimony had been taken.

"Counsel assisting the Coroner, Kristina Stern SC, in association with legal representatives retained by Cricket Australia interviewed player and umpire witnesses appearing at the coronial enquiry," a spokesperson said.

"Each person was interviewed in this process independently. These interviews were held at the request of counsel assisting in which each of the players and umpires voluntarily participated. Statements were then drafted recording these interviews and these draft statements were reviewed by both cricket's legal representatives and counsel assisting.

"Following this review, players were then sent the resulting draft statements and were asked to check the accuracy of the draft and make any amendments or additions they wished to have included before returning them.

"As witnesses who have appeared at the coronial hearing have testified, these statements were finalised without talking to any other witness. We are comfortable that this process has allowed the players and umpires to provide accurate, independent and truthful evidence to the enquiry."

It has been agreed that Day will not be cross-examined following his statement. The inquest continues until Friday.
 

some11

Referee
Messages
23,313
No good can come of this he said she said bs, sounds like a bunch of people have heard what has been said in confidence and just left it alone since it has no bearing on what was an accident - except this Day bloke who comes off as a crusader.
 

Timbo

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Staff member
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20,270
At the end of the day what difference does it make what Doug Bollinger said?????

Nothing good comes from this. Are they somehow trying to prove that New South Wales went out there with the intent to actually murder Phil Hughes at the wicket?

If they're looking for someone to blame, how is that going to help two years after the fact. Are they seriously hoping this ends with 'yes, Sean Abbott was trying to kill Phil'. Because it's never, ever going to happen. All this does is leave all parties embittered until their last days.
 

Patorick

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How can people that were not on the field say for sure that people who were on the field are lying about something that happened on the field?
 

chigurh

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3,958
I don't get what the Hughes family wants out of this. Do they think the players are criminals?

Even if there had been sledging and a plan to bowl short to Phil, (and even that is in dispute, and the umpires had no problem with either aspect that day) so what?
 

some11

Referee
Messages
23,313
I wouldn't bother posting any more updates about this inquiry, the family seems to think there's some kind of conspiracy from CA.

This is going to put a damper on the summer.
 
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