The death of Phillip Hughes, a batsman for Australia’s cricket team, during a domestic match in 2014 changed the sport in his country and beyond. It accelerated changes to helmet technology and regulations on wearing them in professional cricket. It prompted a detailed inquest into whether his death could have been avoided and raised questions about how the sport could be made safer.
It also led to more significant changes. Last year, Australia introduced concussion substitutes to domestic one-day and Twenty20 matches, a momentous step in a sport that, except for a brief experiment in 2005 in one-day international matches, has never allowed substitutes.
Yet there is growing anger that changes to protect players’ safety do not go far enough. Under International Cricket Council rules, all first-class club matches as well as all international matches still prohibit substitutes, even for head injuries.
“We would like to see concussion substitutes introduced both into first-class and international cricket,†said Tony Irish, the executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, the sport’s global players’ association. “We see this as an important health and safety issue for players and believe that cricket is behind other sports in dealing with it.â€
NEWYORKTIMES
