Australian cricket united in fear and grief
The shockwaves from the Phillip Hughes incident are so deep that many writers wonder how Australia will bounce back.
26-Nov-2014
Robert Craddock writes in the Herald Sun that Australian cricket will be reshaped by Phillip Hughes's accident.
The shock waves are so deep, they could even change the way Australia play the game, certainly this summer. Will the Test attack be so brazen as to bomb the Indian batsmen with short balls? What if someone else got hit and seriously hurt? Is it really worth it? And what about sledging? Doesn't it all seem a little childish now? Desperately sad events such as Hughes' injury put life and sport into perspective.
In the Age, Peter Hanlon also considers how cricket will bounce back.
In the MCG nets on Wednesday morning, Test fast bowler Peter Siddle told his Victorian teammate Marcus Stoinis to step aside so he could send down a bouncer. Emotions are so raw, it's easy to believe cricket might have changed forever.
Also in the Age, Greg Baum writes of fear now coming to the surface.
In the sporting dialogue, fear mostly is contemplated only in terms of its opposite and antidote, courage. No higher accolade is accorded to a sportsperson than to be called fearless. But also in this, there is artifice; even the fearless will admit that it is not fearlessness, but fear tamed.