An inquest into the 25-year-old’s death has found he was struck a fatal blow by a high bouncing ball during the Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground in November 2014 after he made a “slight error”.
The injury caused a haemorrhage in his brain and he died two days later in hospital.
NSW Coroner Michael Barnes told the court Hughes “could have avoided the ball by ducking under it, but such was his competitiveness he sought to make runs from it”.
“A minuscule misjudgement, or a slight error of execution, caused him to miss the ball which crashed into his neck with fatal consequences. There is absolutely no suggestion the ball was bowled with malicious intent. Neither the bowler nor anyone else was to blame,” said Coroner Barnes.
The emotionally charged inquest last month deepened tension between the Hughes family and cricketers who testified.
The inquest had heard the family believed Hughes died unnecessarily because of threatening sledges, short bowls and a slow emergency response.
While, the State Coroner recommended a review of dangerous and unfair bowling, he said because of Hughes' high level of skill he was comfortable dealing with short pitched balls.
“An analysis of the laws in question showed there is some ambiguity in their wording which may make interpretation challenging. Further, the umpires who gave evidence acknowledged that more guidance in how the laws should be interpreted and applied would be of assistance,” said Coroner Barnes.
No finding was made on whether sledging occurred, but the Coroner said “repeated denials of any remarks having occurred in the game in which Phillip Hughes was injured were difficult to accept.”
“Hopefully, the focus on this unsavoury aspect of the incident may cause those who claim to love the game to reflect upon whether the practice of sledging is worthy of its participants. An outsider is left to wonder why such a beautiful game would need such an ugly underside,” said Coroner Barnes.
The Coroner said Hughes was not wearing the most up-to-date helmet and game rules did not require him to, “however, had he even been wearing that most modern equipment then available, it would not have protected the area of his body where the fatal blow landed”.
The Coroner recommended “Cricket Australia continue its collaboration with sports equipment developers… with a view to identifying a neck protector that can be mandated for wearing at least in all first class cricket matches”.
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said he will look to implement the recommendations of the coronial inquest as quick as possible.
“We are fast tracking the research to get an understanding of the right sort of neck guards that can work practically on a helmet, that obviously needs to be comfortable for the player but they also need to ensure safety,” said Mr Sutherland.
It's also been suggested that daily medical briefings at the cricket ground are reviewed.
The inquest had heard an ambulance was not called for over six minutes after Hughes was hit and the person who called did not have sufficient information to enable an accurate triage to be made by the ambulance dispatcher.
“Consideration should be given to mandating that a single page document is created at the beginning of each day’s play that identifies the individuals who will discharge the key functions should an emergency occur, and that records the contact numbers of those people,” said Coroner Barnes.
The Hughes family were not in court today as the findings were read.
The State Coroner said he hoped the family "would accept the compelling evidence that rules were complied with and Phillip's death was a tragic accident”.
Share
