Strange Notations From a Laborious Life

 I love cricket so it is probably no surprise to anyone that I am distressed by the incident which occurred at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday. One of best known cricketers in the country, Phil Hughes was knocked out by a bouncer and carried, stricken from the field. Mouth to mouth resuscitation and CPR were used to try and revive him. He remains in a critical condition in hospital this morning after brain surgery. His exact condition remains unclear.

 There is a minute level of danger in anything we do. I can remember some years ago stepping off a street corner in Melbourne and almost walking into the path of an oncoming car. Only the excited exhortation of my mother who was following in my wake and had seen the car approaching made me aware of the impending danger. I have often wondered what may have happened had she not been there.

 I have raced pushbikes and have been doing a little gentle riding again recently and there are certainly hidden dangers in partaking in such activity. Just last week an unknown culprit lay two tree branches across a bike path in an underpass near the Tuggeranong Hyperdome shopping centre and caused an accident in which an unaware bicyclist collided with these obstacles and crashed. He wasn’t hurt badly, just a graze or two on his head but it could have been worse. I traverse this very section of bike path regularly.

 Sportsmen are acutely aware of the minor dangers which can cause serious accidents but for the most part it is accepted that the risk is low and on the balance of probability most of us will never encounter a problem. And that is the way it is.

 Phil Hughes was unlucky as was the bowler who delivered the bouncer, Shaun Abbott who must be distraught himself today. Phil is the unfortunate player who’s number finally came up. In a sport like cricket, very occasionally someone is going to get seriously hurt. It is no consolation for Phil and his family that these incidents are so rare they are never given a second thought by practitioners of the game. Perhaps that is why we are all so shocked at his serious injury.

 There was a great Australian cyclist called Russell Mockridge who very many people regard as the greatest rider ever produced by this nation. He could do it all. Kill them in a road race, destroy them on the track. Ride a sprint race and beat the best in the world or grind the opposition into the ground over 200km and leave them in his wake. He was a freak.

 In September 1958, just after starting the Tour of Gippsland road race he and four other riders rode at speed through an intersection in Clayton South in Melbourne without seeing a bus entering the intersection from the right. In those days there were no traffic lights and give way to the right was the rule. There were no marshalls manning this blackspot. Mockridge and another hit the bus and Russell was killed. It was an accident but again an illustration of what can happen, albeit rarely in sport.

 The 1958 Tour of Gippsland was a handicap event and Mockridge and his bunch were the last to leave the start as befitted their status as the best in the sport. Over 150 riders had ridden though that intersection in the hour beforehand yet Mockridge, Australia’s greatest cyclist was the one who met his demise. Such is the result when fate and luck meet and decide a man’s destiny.

 But, cycling continued and riders still race and ride on the roads with the same dangers and mercifully, accidents and incidents are rare. If it was too dangerous we wouldn’t do it. But the dark cloud still lingers above us even if we take no notice of it.

 Sooner or later someone will ask what is the life of a cricketer worth and why the shock when people are dying in race riots in America and a barbarous militia is inflicting it’s murderous doctrine on the people of the Middle East but it avoids the point. Cricket is a game which is embroidered into the cultural fabric of this nation and when an accident such as the one which occurs yesterday happens, many of us feel the weight of it. We wonder about life and how it can flicker in an instant in the slightest of winds. We wonder how a much loved game can suddenly turn so serious and how a sportman’s life can suddenly hang in the balance just because he was doing the thing he loves.

 Let your kids play cricket and ride their bikes. Let them kick their footy’s and drive their cars. Life is too short to be restricted. There is risk in everything we do but what would life be if we worried about the danger at every waking moment?

 Let’s hope Phil Hughes pulls through and returns to cricket better than ever. And to everyone else, take care of yourselves and those who matter.

 Have a nice day.