Editorial: Helmet lesson in death

The death of Phillip Hughes has prompted discussion about helmet safety.

Any cricketer or parent of a cricketer felt, in some way, the tragedy of Aussie cricketer Phillip Hughes' death.

Hughes' funeral was held yesterday.

He died last Thursday after being struck in the head by a short pitched ball during a New South Wales-South Australia Sheffield Shield match.

Millions of players and supporters around the world have since contemplated their mortality.

At a national tournament in Palmerston North last week, Kamo Intermediate School players, coaches, teachers and supporters stood for a minute's silence.

That week, not all the teams that KIS played wore helmets.

KIS possesses at least one player capable of bowling an occasional bouncer - he was reluctant to bowl it against kids wearing caps, rather than helmets.

Every KIS player wore a helmet, a legacy of the Northland Cricket Association's sound policy that as soon as junior players begin playing with a hard ball, they wear a helmet. As does the wicketkeeper when he or she stands up to the stumps.

Hughes was an elite player, one of only a few capable of playing the attacking hook or pull shot against the short pitched ball at the speeds that he faced as a domestic and international cricketer.

Many players just don't play the bouncer.

You can get out, and you can also get hurt. Now we know, you can die playing the game you love.

Hughes' helmet doesn't appear to have let him down. He was hit in the neck - just below the helmet base.

There is protection for most parts of the body - hands, legs, thighs, arms. But not the neck where Hughes was struck. The cricket world now owes it to Hughes' memory, to modernise helmets or develop a neck brace that protects the soft spot that has taught us all such a hard lesson.

And on behalf of my son, I'll put my hand up now to buy a Hughes brace or helmet as soon as they come on the market.