Phillip Hughes injury unfortunate; cricket always involves an element of risk: Brian Lara

The whole cricketing world has unified in its support for Phillip Hughes

Australian batsman Phillip Hughes was severlely injured by a bouncer in a Sheiffeld Shield match yesterday and is still fighting for his life in an induced coma. Speaking on the same, West Indies batting legend Brain Lara said that there is always a risk of injury in professional sports.

“It’s very unfortunate, batsmen face all sorts of dangers, we can just pray for him,” Lara was quoted as saying by worldinsport.com. “I know all of Australia and all of the cricketing world are praying he comes back to play and to full health.

“I think it’s a sport and you are always going to have that element of risk. This is an unfortunate and rare situation. I felt safe playing but there was that element of risk, I used to say a little prayer in the morning and just hope for the best,” he added.

Hughes’ incident is the second time that a batsman has been injured by a bouncer in top-level cricket this year, the first victim being Stuart Broad, who was hit on his nose while facing Varun Aaron in a Test match. Helmet manufactureres Masuri have announced that they need to analyze the video footage of Hughes’ injury in a bid to come up with something that provides more safety for the batsmen.

Lara, who has witnessed the game transform a lot since his debut, said best efforts have been taken to prevent such major injuries.

“I think they’ve done their best over the years to curb it and manage it as best as possible,” Lara said.

“But it’s part of a fast bowlers armoury and it’s very hard to take that totally away from them. There are some batsmen who feed on that sort of attack and I don’t really believe it’s anything that should affect fast bowlers and the rules governing that,” the West Indian signed off.