Matthew Hayden joins The Grill Team, rallying for Hughesy.
Late yesterday, there was the awful news that South Australian batsman Phillip Hughes taken to hospital in a critical condition after being hit by a bouncer.
Phillip was playing in a Sheffield Shield match at the SCG match when he was struck by a short delivery from NSW paceman Sean Abbott.
This morning former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden spoke to Sydney’s Triple M Grill Team as well as Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland.
Matty Johns asked Matthew Hayden, “What about the bouncer, sports make changes when incidents like this happen….do you foresee in the near future some changes to the rules as far as bouncers are concerned?”
Matthew Hayden said, “No I don’t reckon, I just think that if you take away that from the game it takes away that combative nature of cricket and I know that as we said, we’re not running into massive human men, but you actually just want to challenge yourself and test cricket is called that for a reason – it tests everything.
“When he fights through like we know he can, he’ll wake up and probably want to do it all over again.”
James Sutherland said, "It has been remarkable to see the way in which I guess the incident has galvanised people in terms of support, and not just here in Australia, all over the world. I've had 30 messages from cricket people all over the world just overnight, direct to me, for me to pass on, thoughts and prayers for Phil and his family, so I guess all of that good will is hopefully going in the right direction and can give him the strength he needs right now to keep fighting through it.
“Sean [Abbott] will have all of the support that he needs around him. I'm sure all his team mates and everyone, they don't feel in any way ill of him for what happened. Everyone knows it's a freak incident that's happened but certainly the support for him is very very strong, and in terms of professional help as well if he needs it, it's there for him.”