Cricket: Alarming reminder of game's dangers

Bouncers have cause many terrible injuries over the years. Photo / Thinkstock

Bouncers have broken noses and jaws, dislodged teeth, fractured skulls and drawn buckets of blood over the years.

They have concussed and, very rarely, resulted in a need for CPR.

But the cricket world has never shuddered in unison quite like this since the use of helmets became widespread.

West Indian Phil Simmons required emergency brain surgery in 1988, but before that the most recent comparable incident to Phillip Hughes' desperately unlucky blow came on India's tour of the West Indies in 1962.

Nari Contractor was struck on the back of his skull by Charlie Griffith in the pre-helmet era.

"I turned my head a fraction but it hit me at a 90-degree angle and I fell on my knees," Contractor recalled of the Bridgetown bouncer in an interview with the BBC, noting it caused bleeding from the ear and nose.

West Indies captain Sir Frank Worrell, who had warned the visitors about Griffith's questionable bowling action before the tour game, was quick to donate blood.

The nearest neurosurgeon was in Trinidad, so the on-duty doctor performed surgery to reduce the clot on Contractor's brain.

A metal plate was inserted. More emergency surgery was required. He remained unconscious for six days.

It ended Contractor's international career, but remarkably he returned to first-class ranks.

Hughes' future in the sport is unclear. His troubles are a stark but incredibly rare reminder that cricket may well be a gentlemen's game, but it can be very dangerous.

A ball hurled at 140-150km/h can cause devastating damage if it hits someone in the wrong spot.

Helmets were largely adopted throughout Australia after David Hookes' jaw was broken in 1978.

Hughes remains in a critical condition at the same facility, and the incident has already provoked a similar debate about safety standards.

Can helmets be improved? Will bouncers be outlawed? What can be done to prevent this happening again?

Possibly. Probably not. Very little.

Inferior models of protective gear have been used by countless cricketers over the years, successfully absorbing many blows.

The issue is more where batsmen are hit, and so few have been struck on the lower back of the skull.

Short-pitched bowling has been reviewed by the ICC and may be again, but the governing body is unlikely to remove an integral part of the sport. Brian Lara and Matthew Hayden were among the batsmen to publicly say it shouldn't be, after Hughes was hit.

Many have referred to Hughes' misfortune as a freak accident and that's exactly what it is.

Beyond not playing the game, nothing can be done to guarantee there will be no repeat of the incident. But equally, there is little to suggest anything similar will happen again for another 50 years.

"Life has to go on. Every man has his setbacks. But one should look ahead, not back," Contractor said.

Hayden expects Hughes is likely to take a similar approach.

"When he fights through like we know he can, he'll wake up and probably want to do it all over again," Hayden said on Triple M.