We all grieve for Phil Hughes, but stop calling cricket a dangerous game

All of a sudden, cricket seems to have become a dangerous game. From Twitter to television debates and corridor chats to the maidans, Phil Hughes is being discussed non stop.

The manner in which he was felled by a Sean Abbott delivery and then breathed his last, cricket has now become ‘unsafe.’ All of a sudden ‘experts’ are making it out as if each time a batsman walks up to the crease he has to start saying his prayers!

Hughes’s funeral is on Sunday and he will be given a huge farewell. He deserves it as he died so young and in tragic circumstances. But I am sure that had Hughes known he was going to pass away, he would not have wished cricket stops.

It’s very nice that cricket has come to a momentary stop but let’s not fool ourselves that these debates are going to change the way cricket is played.

Sport has this huge thing about soaking in stress and pain, trauma and tragedy. So cricket cannot stop, rather must not stop.

There are five days to go for the first Test between India and Australia at Perth and people are in a huge state of shock in Australia and the world over. Till such time as Hughes is given a fine farewell, the focus will be on how he was hit and the moments that followed it.

Look at Formula One for example. In 1994, when Brazilian heartthrob Ayrton Senna was killed tragically in a F1 Grand Prix at Imola, the images sent shivers down the spines of people. You can check it out on YouTube, the scenes are horrifying. But that did not mean Formula One stopped.

Yes, there are better safety controls and with advancements in automobile technology specifically relating to F1 the emphasis is on safety. The driver wears a crash helmet and his driving zipped up suit is fireproof. But if the car is going to go up in flames in any accident, no helmet or fireproof jacket can guarantee protection from death.

Move over to cricket again, from fast bowlers to batsmen who have taken blows on their body above the neck, people recall how they dealt with the incidents.

Hughes’s teammates are in a state of shock and that’s understandable as this is like a hailstorm whistling through the woods leaving behind its trail of destruction.

Earthquakes happen and life returns to normalcy. Deaths happen in the family and we recoup. Cricket is too big a game to come to a standstill. Sport teaches positivity so those talking about cricket becoming ‘dangerous’ would do well to understand the nuances of killing negativity.