Contact sports can be dangerous. Injuries can happen that can potentially be life threatning. Even worse is a potentional death. Sports equipment is a health hazard. They're heavy and any form of involuntary contact can be deadly. An unfortunate story has emerged as proof. This isn't an isolated incident.
An Australian teenager has died after he was hit by a cricket ball during a practice session in Melbourne. Ben Austin, 17, was training - with a helmet but no neck guard - in cricket nets in Ferntree Gully on Tuesday when he was hit in the neck by a ball thrown using a handheld ball launcher.
Emergency workers attended to the scene around 17:00 local time before Ben was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He was put on life support but died on Thursday.
Ben's dad, Jace Austin, said the family was "utterly devastated" by the death of "our beautiful Ben" while Cricket Victoria said the cricketing community across the country would be mourning the teenager's death.
In a statement, Jace Austin shared details of his family's loss. "For Tracey and I, Ben was an adored son, deeply loved brother to Cooper and Zach and a shining light in the lives of our family and friends," he said.
"This tragedy has taken Ben from us, but we find some comfort that he was doing something he did for so many summers - going down to the nets with mates to play cricket. He loved cricket and it was one of the joys of his life."
He said the family was also supporting Ben's team-mate who was bowling in the nets when the accident happened. "This accident has impacted two young men and our thoughts are with he and his family as well," he said.
He also thanked the local cricketing community for their support since the accident and praised the first responders and medical staff who helped his son. Cricket Victoria chief executive officer, Nick Cummins said it was an "extremely challenging time" for all involved.
"The ball hit him in the neck in a similar accident that Phil Hughes suffered 10 years ago," Nick Cummins said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Australian cricketer, Sean Abbott, who bowled the ball that killed former Test star Phil Hughes, has visited the young Melbourne player involved in the fatal accident that killed Ben Austin.
On Friday, Abbott, who is from New South Wales, visited the eastern Melbourne suburb of Ferntree Gully to console with the boy whose unique pain he shares.
At the nets where Austin went down on Tuesday, an outpouring of grief has been left in the form of flowers, bats and messages of support. Speaking to 7NEWS, Austin’s father Jace said the family went back there on Friday.
"We just got back from the nets today because I had to get there," he said, speaking from his son’s bedroom. "I had to go there and be where he was at his last hit. We love the game more than we ever have now and we’ll do that through Benny because that’s what he would want."
At the tragic scene where Austin lost his life, his uncle remembered a beloved nephew. "They say no one’s perfect, but he was pretty close," Dave Anstey told 7NEWS.
Austin’s parents and two younger brothers said a final goodbye at the hospital. "Today’s probably going to be the hardest day," Anstey said. "It’s their final moments, hours, with Ben and, yeah, they’re holding up OK. The five of them are together, which is really beautiful. When the Phil Hughes tragedy happened, your cricket just becomes a family."
The ball that hit Ben was apparently launched by a thrower using a handheld device, commonly used to accelerate the speed of the ball and ease the strain of bowling on the shoulders.
In a statement, Cummins said: "The entire cricketing community in Victoria - and nationally - is mourning this loss and it will be something that will stay with us for a long time."
One of his closest mates had been there too. "It’s dreadful. Just having to see him there and knowing that he wouldn’t like it a single bit," Hudson Reid said. "I think about all the good times I’ve had with him and I’m not going to be able to have those memories with him any longer.”
The much-loved teenager was supposed to be sitting his PE exam. Instead, this tragedy is making global headlines, rocking the entire cricketing world. At house upon house across the nation, bats are out for Ben.
"You’re just gobsmacked with how much support (there has been) and it’s just really gone international and everyone knows about it and it’s good that Ben’s legacy will just live on forever," Austin’s coach, Josh Henry, said.
At the Junction Oval today, on Day 4 of Victoria’s Sheffield Shield clash with Tasmania, players, coaches and umpires observed a minute’s silence before play.
Nick Cummins described the tribute as bittersweet. "It makes you so proud to realise how connected the cricket community is and how much we look after each other ... but it’s a shame that it’s these moments that remind you of that very fact," he told reporters on Friday.
"Ben was the classic Aussie boy or girl who loved footy in the winter and cricket in the summer. He is how we would like all of our children to turn out, and was living the dream.” He described Ben as a talented player, popular teammate and captain who was well- known in under-18 circles in Melbourne's south east.
"It is heartbreaking to see a young life cut so short, while Ben was doing something that he loved so much," Mr Cummins said.
Ben played for the Ferntree Gully Cricket Club who, in a social media post, paid tribute to the youngster as someone who brought joy to many. The club also called on friends and supporters to "put your bats out for Benny", mirroring a similar gesture that was made for Hughes.
The Waverley Park Hawks Junior Football Club, for which Ben played more than 100 games, said he was "kind," "respectful" and a "fantastic footballer."
"Our club and community have lost a truly great young person who was developing into a fine young adult and his loss will be felt keenly by our club for many years to come."
In 2014, Australian cricketer, Phillip Hughes, died after being struck on the neck by a ball bowled by Sean Abbott, while batting in the Sheffield Shield. His death, for which a coroner ultimately found no-one was to blame, sparked improvements to safety equipment for those playing the sport.
Hughes, batting for South Australia, collapsed face first on the ground after being hit by a bouncer from the 22-year-old Abbott during a Sheffield Shield game against New South Wales. Hughes had been wearing a helmet but the ball struck him at the top of the neck, causing the injury.
He had CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation at the ground before being taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, where he had a 90-minute operation to relieve tHEpressure on his brain.
Abbott and members of the Australian national team, including then-captain, Michael Clarke, visited Hughes in hospital.
"It is my sad duty to inform you that a short time ago Phillip Hughes passed away," said Brukner. "He never regained consciousness following his injury on Tuesday. "He was not in pain before he passed and was surrounded by his family and close friends."
"As a cricket community, we mourn his loss and extend our deepest sympathies to Phillip's family and friends at this incredibly sad time. Cricket Australia kindly asks that the privacy of the Hughes family, players and staff be respected."
At a news conference, Australia team doctor, Peter Brukner, explained that Hughes had died as a result of "vertebral artery dissection." The artery had been compressed, causing it to split and leading to a "massive bleed" into the brain.
Brukner said the injury was "freakish," adding: "Vertebral artery dissection is incredibly rare. If you look in the literature, there is only 100 cases reported. There is only one previous example caused by a cricket ball."
Dr. Tony Grabs, who treated Hughes at St Vincent's, said scans had shown that the stricken cricketer needed surgery quickly to help get the pressure down in the brain.
"He had extensive surgery to remove some of the skull from around his brain to help allow the brain to expand," added Grabs.
However, his recovery didn't go as hoped. "Over a period of the first 24 to 48 hours, he did not make very much improvement and unfortunately, as a consequence of the injury, he died,'' said Brukner.
Unbeaten on 63 against his former state team, New South Wales, a bouncer struck Hughes on the neck, the injuries resulting in his death two days later, three days away from what would have been his 26th birthday.
It remains unlike any other moment cricket has experienced, a tragedy amplified by the innocence of the event. Hughes was batting, as he had done his whole life, playing the same game we all play: be it in the back yard, maidan or village green. Those who didn't know him grieved by posting pictures of their bats, left out for Hughes, one of those rare moments social media offers genuine warmth.
Brendon McCullum’s New Zealand were in the middle of a Test against Pakistan in Sharjah when they learned of Hughes’s death. He told his tearful players that nothing they would do over the match would be judged, that there would be no consequences for failure. None of this really mattered after what had happened. They would end up scoring 690 at close to five an over, winning by an innings, changing the way McCullum approached the game.
Hughes’ funeral was broadcast and attended by revered names, including: Virat Kohli and Brian Lara. Michael Clarke, his captain and close friend, spoke movingly about Hughes’ spirit: "I hope it never leaves."
Then, somehow, play resumed. Within days came a Test match at Adelaide where Mitchell Johnson, who had terrorised England a year earlier, felt sick after striking Kohli on the helmet. "Michael Clarke grabbed me and steered me back to my run-up, tried to get me to think about the next ball," Johnson wrote in his autobiography. "He said it was just part of the game, get on with it. I think it was a difficult moment for him as well."
Hughes remained at the forefront of minds when Australia were victorious, too, the players celebrating Nathan Lyon’s final wicket by sprinting to the 408 emblazoned on the outfield, their late team-mate’s Test cap number.
Has the game changed since? The question crops up most Novembers. Helmet safety has evolved with the use of neck protectors and more attention has steadily been paid to the dangers of concussion, highlighted by the introduction of substitutes for the injury.
The bouncer and its place in the game has prompted some discussion. In 2021, the MCC began a "global consultation" to see whether the laws relating to the short ball needed adjustment but the answer, revealed a year later, was for the status quo to remain. "The results of the consultation show that short-pitched bowling, within the Laws, is an important part of the makeup of the sport and, in fact, to change it would materially change the game," said Jamie Cox, the club’s then-assistant secretary.
Hughes still comes to mind whenever someone’s helmet takes a blow. Those who were there at Lord’s in 2019, when Steve Smith fell to the floor after feeling the force of Jofra Archer, will remember the awful, brief hush that came with it, the fright that didn't leave until Smith returned to his feet. That threat will never leave.
The tributes will be plentiful for Hughes, recalling not just his talent but the universal love he garnered from team-mates, the alternative view he offered when on the field. As Clarke recalled a decade ago: "Things were always put into perspective when Hughesy said: 'Where else would you rather be, boys, than playing cricket for your country?'"
It's extremely tragic as to what happened. Someone once told me that when one dies, a lot of people are affected. These stories seems to be proof as to that statement.
If there's a silver lining, it's that more safety measures are put into place as a result. Players safety is absolutely paramount in sport.