SYDNEY, (Pakistan Point News – 4th Nov, 2016) : Nobody was to blame for the death of Australian opener Phillip Hughes in 2014, says the coroner who led the inquest into his death. Hughes died from a brain hemorrhage, two days after being hit on the neck while playing for South Australia in a first-class match in Sydney. New South Wales coroner Michael Barnes did, however, make recommendations to ensure the sport was safer. Cricket Australia said it would make the changes as soon as possible.
"We want to do everything possible to avoid this sort of thing happening again in the future," chief James Sutherland told reporters in Perth. Mr Barnes said there had been no "malicious intent" from New South Wales' Sean Abbott, who bowled the fatal delivery at the Sydney cricket Ground, and "no failure" to enforce the laws of the game in respect to the short-pitched deliveries. "Of the 23 bouncers bowled that day, 20 were bowled to him," he said.
"Phillip was comfortably dealing with short-pitch balls. I conclude they did not contribute to his death. "Hughes was dealt a fatal ball with a high bounce. He could have ducked but such was his competitiveness he wanted to make runs from it." The coroner added: "A minuscule misjudgment or a slight error of execution caused him to miss the ball which crashed into his neck with fatal consequences." Those sentiments were echoed by Tom Cooper, who was batting alongside Hughes at the time of the incident.Philip Hughes had played 25 Test matches from 2009-2013 and had scored more than 1500 runs.
