'It'll be best for the players to play the Test' - Chappell

Ian Chappell believes playing the first Test against India next week as planned could the best way for Australia's cricketers to deal with the tragic death of Phillip Hughes. The Test is due to begin at the Gabba next Thursday, but on Friday morning Cricket Australia's chief executive officer James Sutherland said the match seemed "a million miles away" and the subject of the Test had not yet been discussed with Australia's players.

The South Australian Cricket Association chief executive officer Keith Bradshaw said on Friday that his understanding was the Hughes family wanted the Brisbane Test to go ahead, but much is likely to depend on how the players feel about the prospect. Chappell said while it had been appropriate for Cricket Australia to cancel this week's round of Sheffield Shield matches after Hughes was struck by a bouncer, the Test might be better off being played.

"In a strange way I think it'll be best for the players if they play the first Test," Chappell said. "They'll have to go to the practice nets, obviously, and when they're in the practice nets, when they're out on the field playing in the match, at least they'll be concentrating on what they've got to do, how the cricket match is going.

"Because they know that every know that every moment they're off the field, whether they're in the hotel, whether they're out or whether they're in the dressing room, they'll be thinking of only one thing and that'll be Phillip Hughes. And so I think to get their mind off of that and to realise that as hard as it might seem, life has to go on, I think that's the best way. They're cricketers. Playing cricket is probably the best way for them to get back into that frame of mind that life has to go on."

If the Test does go ahead as scheduled, it could be especially challenging for the New South Wales players who were on the field when Hughes was struck at the SCG on Tuesday. However, Chappell said that elite sportsmen had the ability to compartmentalise their thoughts, although he expected it would be difficult for the fast bowlers to send down a bouncer with their usual venom.

"I'm sure the first bowler who bowls a bouncer, it won't be the normal intent there," Chappell said "They'll be bowling it thinking I've got to bowl a bouncer, but I hope like hell it doesn't get up very high, I hope like hell it doesn't hit someone. And after a couple, they'll sort of get back into the swing of it.

"Batsmen - it's probably a bit easier for the batsmen, strange as that may seem. Because they're not going to be thinking about getting hit, they're just going to be thinking about how they normally play a bouncer, whether they try to hook it or whether they avoid it, whatever they do, that's what will be on their minds. It's probably going to be tougher for the bowlers in a strange way than it will be for the batsmen."