Safety issues, a priority for Cricket Australia

Sydney Phillip Hughes death from head injuries has reopened the decadesold debate on how batsmen can be protected from a hard fiveandahalf ounce projectile travelling around 90 miles per hourWell its obviously a concerning issue said Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland at a news conference Thursday Helmets are continually upgraded and reviewed That will no doubt happen The relevant manufacturers and medical experts will do that again in the fullness of time but as I say right now its all about providing as much support as we can to those closest to PhillipThe 25yearold Australia international died on Thursday two days after being struck down at the Sydney Cricket Ground illustrating starkly the dangers of facing fast bowlingDespite wearing protective headgear Hughes never regained consciousness and died from his injuries after trying to play a shortpitched bouncer in a domestic match and being hit on an unshielded area at the base of his skullAustralian team doctor Peter Brukner said that Hughes had been killed by a freakish injury I think in this instance this was a freakish accident because it was an injury to the neck that caused haemorrhage in the brain said BruknerThe condition is incredibly rare Its called vertebral artery dissection leading to subarachnoid haemorrhage only 100 cases were ever reported Yes we certainly need to review all our procedures and equipment but this is an incredibly rare type of injury Masuri the Britishbased manufacturer of the helmet worn by Hughes and one of the leading suppliers of protective headgear to the worlds top batsmen said his injuries were in an area that is difficult to protectFrom the footage and pictures currently available to Masuri it appears that Phil Hughes was struck by the ball to the rear of the grille and below the back of the shell Masuri said in a statement This is a vulnerable area of the head and neck that helmets cannot fully protect while enabling batsmen to have full and proper movementThe question of how batsmen should protect themselves from a blow on the head is not a new one Ban the bouncer Patsy Hendren the Middlesex and England batsman briefly wore a reinforced multiplepeaked cap made for him by his wife in 1933 following Englands infamous Bodyline tour of Australia in 193233 that featured shortpitched hostile bowling It never caught on and for more than 40 years batsmen wore only a cap or sunhat at mostThe mid1970s saw Englands Mike Brearley experiment with a protective skullcap worn under the regular cap But the most notable change in headgear came during Kerry Packers World Series Cricket in the late 1970s which attracted an exceptional crop of fast bowlers including the West Indies fearsome four of Andy Roberts Wayne Daniel Michael Holding and Joel GarnerBatsmen facing a shortpitched barrage decided to take matters into the their own hands and sought ways to protect their heads Englands Dennis Amiss was one who pioneered the batting helmet I went to a motorcycle helmet manufacturer and he came up with something lighter than the fibreglass motorcycle helmets around in those days Amiss told the Daily Telegraph It was superseded by the forerunner of the capdesign helmet which is now commonplace with plastic visors giving way to metal grillesFormer England captain Michael Atherton an opening batsman wrote in Wednesdays edition of The Times Maybe helmets had made us a little complacent Atherton said while before helmets batsmen generally hooked cautiously and infrequently off the back foot helmetwearing players such as Australias Matthew Hayden were emboldened to hook off the front foot a much riskier option One way to improve batsmens safety would be an outright ban on bouncers a move that is now the subject of debate Before Hughes death such a ban would have been almost unthinkable Maybe not so now