n the preceding few balls lead you to commit the fata

Nature of play sounds like a pretty harmless phrase. But for all those involved in the inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes it has taken on a sinister quality none will ever forget.It was these words that caused the New South Wales coronial inquest to veer into truly awful territory at Sydneys Downing Centre court complex this week, pitting cricketers against one another and causing the Hughes family to bitterly decry the conclusion of a process that had started out with faint traces of optimism.Before the inquest began on Monday, the familys representative, James Henderson, stated that they hoped perhaps there will be a positive that comes out of Phillips death. That may be, but this week has not felt like it.When the inquest began with an opening statement by the New South Wales coroner, Michael Barnes QC, he stated that proceedings were not about apportioning blame. That may have been the intention, but this week has not felt like it.Mainly because of those three words, nature of play. Cricket Australias own investigation of Hughes death, conducted by David Curtain QC, had carefully outlined terms of reference that did not include issues surrounding the laws of the game nor how it was played on the day Hughes was hit. It had been generally understood that this was the most tragic of accidents, in a game where the hardness of the cricket ball will always necessitate some risk.Sean Abbott, the unfortunate man to bowl the ball that struck Hughes, had concluded exactly that in his statement to the inquest: I know there is a suggestion that the laws of the game be changed so that bouncers should not be bowled, but the same cricket ball will be hit and flying around whether bouncers are bowled or not. There will always be risks in the game.Yet the inclusion of reference to the nature of play in the brief outlined by the coroner opened up what has been repeatedly called a Pandoras Box. Inquests, of course, are devised to determine what remedies may be applied to prevent similar deaths in future, and the coroner is obliged to investigate thoroughly and fully. This most high-profile of inquests was set on the path it took this week from the moment the family questioned how the game had been played, creating - in the words of Greg Hughes - an unsafe workplace for his son.The Hughes familys concerns about the number of bouncers their son faced that day were linked to their apparent disgust at some of the sledging allegedly directed at him, namely the threat of Ill kill you supposedly uttered by Doug Bollinger. All tumbled out at the inquest.What followed was one of the most vexing episodes witnessed in Australian cricket. Convened ostensibly to try to establish how to make the game and its players safer, the inquest instead turned into the most painful and hurtful dredging through the past imaginable. Very little was witnessed in terms of discernible benefits or remedies beyond those already recommended at the start of the week by Kristina Stern SC, counsel assisting the coroner.Instead, players and officials were subjected to cross-examination that at times stretched the bounds of credulity. Crude links were drawn between cricket tactics, verbal exchanges and the freak blow to the side of the neck, from a short ball in a Sheffield Shield game at the SCG on November 25, 2014, that resulted in the arterial injury leading to Hughes death two days later in St Vincents Hospital.So it was that Brad Haddin, captain of New South Wales on the day, had the ethics of his tactics questioned. So it was that Bollinger, exemplar of the angry fast bowler, was asked to justify why he bowled and spoke the way he has always done. So it was that David Warner, who sat at Hughes side as medical staff tried frantically to get him breathing, was questioned on sledging. And so it was that Tom Cooper, Hughes batting partner that day, housemate, and close friend, was made to feel in some way responsible for not stepping in to prevent the events that unfolded.For Cooper, it was a particularly cruel experience. At the SCG wake that followed Hughes death he had spoken to Jason, Hughes brother, at a time when all may have been a blur. A few days later, Cooper was a pallbearer at the funeral, in Macksville. Yet a little less than two years later he was being accused of relaying Bollingers sledges to Jason Hughes, his evidence pitted against the late submission of another pallbearer, the Mosman club captain Matthew Day.All this seemed at best peripheral to events on the day Hughes was hit, and at worst a sickening re-traumatisation of the players involved. There is a compelling argument to be made that none of the players should have been asked to appear at the inquest at all.Haddin, Bollinger, Warner, Cooper and Abbott had already delivered statements based on interviews with Stern and CA counsel. Once the officiating umpires, Mike Graham-Smith and Ash Barrow, plus the long-time international umpire and ICC training manager Simon Taufel, had all stated to the inquest that they did not consider the nature of play to be outside the laws of the game, the players testimony was irrelevant, other than to heighten the visibility and drama of the inquest.Others were drawn into questions that seemed a long way from relevant. The former New South Wales administrator Donna Anderson found herself being asked about instances of sledging in Sheffield Shield matches, despite never having taken the field as either a player or an umpire. The CA head of sports science, Alex Kountouris, was heavily questioned regarding an internal report he had prepared on the incident.At the same time the media covering the inquest found themselves reliving the same problems that arose in the hours and days after Hughes was hit. Issues of appropriate and sensitive coverage of such cases, that lie at the juncture of sport, police rounds and court proceedings, have tested the limits of reporters, editors, cameramen and photographers. Numerous players are known to have checked out of following all media this week, with good reason.There were some recommendations that can be viewed as constructive pending their inclusion in Barnes findings, to be released on November 4. Players and umpires may find themselves being subject to mandatory first-aid training, and clearer communication between participants on the field and medical staff off it may save critical minutes in the moments after any instance of serious injury. And the wording of laws relating to the use of short-pitched bowling is likely to be revisited on Taufels recommendation.Yet none of these findings would have been any different had none of the players been asked to speak at the inquest. Nor would they have changed much at all if matters of sledging and team plans had not been probed with considerable thrust by Greg Melick SC, the Hughes familys legal representative and a former special investigator for CA. Melick represented his clients with zest, left with little choice but to pursue the lines opened by the coroners brief.The overwhelming sense around the Hughes inquest this week is that it has been an enormous amount of pain and conflict for very little additional benefit. At its centre has been a grieving family, their suffering no less vivid than it was in the days following the ball that fatefully struck Phillip Hughes on the side of the neck. All that was brought horribly home by the sight of Greg, Virginia and Megan Hughes making abrupt exits on the final day of the inquest, in the midst of a closing submission by CAs legal counsel, Bruce Hodgkinson.There had been talk, whispered in quiet corners, of a gulf between the Hughes family and the cricket community. Now that talk has been replaced by awful and very public reality, of the sort that leaves any chance of resolution and peace further away than ever. Largely because of three small words. China Jerseys Stitched . In the response filed Wednesday to the complaint by 30-year-old Alexander Bradley, attorneys say the former University of Florida player is invoking his Fifth Amendment right that protects people from incriminating themselves. China Jerseys Wholesale .C. -- Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Bobcats got off to a fast start, and the Sacramento Kings were never quite able to catch up. https://www.chinajerseyscheap.us/ . Oaklands loss to Seattle clinched the ALs best record for the Red Sox with one day to spare in the regular season. "I think everybody was kind of watching," catcher David Ross said. "Demp (Ryan Dempster) came out before he went to the bullpen and was just yelling that they lost. China Jerseys Cheap . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. Cheap Jerseys From China . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. Wrist for Anderson, fingers for BroadIn the morning, Stuart Broad put on an exhibition of top-quality seam bowling. These days when we talk about the art of fast bowling, the focus is always on the wrist and rarely on the fingers. Broad has shown that even if cutters are no longer in vogue, theyre equally effective as swing, if not more. From a batsmans perspective playing swing is relatively easy because he can see the movement in the air and also, if the lateral movement off the pitch is complimenting the swing in the air, he can adjust. In Vizag, Broad brought the ball back into the batsman in the air and whenever he wanted to make it go away after pitching, he pressed the index finger a little more. Its next to impossible for a batsman to gauge that little change from the hand and the only clue is the slightly wobbly seam position in the air.Bowling straighter to KohliEnglands seamers kept everything outside off in the first innings. The idea, once again, was to target the chink they successfully exploited in 2014 in England. But the pitch at Vizag is different and the Virat Kohli they were bowling to this time is different. Kohli was content in leaving a lot of balls alone in the first innings. So, in the second innings, the English bowlers tried bowling a lot straighter. But even in the second innings, Kohli was up to it. For every plan that England had for Kohli, Kohli had a counter plan.India finally bounce HameedIn the first Test match, Indias seamers didnt attempt too many bouncers to young Haseeb Hameed. But in todays age of in-depth video analysis, it was only a matter of timme that before India changed tack.dddddddddddd The first ball that Hameed faced from Mohammed Shami was a bouncer that hit him on the gloves. Umesh Yadav, from the other end, also tried a couple of bouncers early on. So far, Hameed has handled the bouncer threat well.The follow-up ballTaking wickets in a Test match is often a result of a nice set-up. The ball that gets you the wicket isnt always the best ball. In fact, very often the preceding few balls lead you to commit the fatal mistake, and thats why it is important to follow up a good ball with an equally good ball. The first bouncer to Hameed, which hit him on the gloves, was followed by a ball that drifted down leg straight to the keeper. The same thing happened in the next over from Umesh. The ball that hit Hameed in the unmentionables was followed by another ball down leg.India seamers hiding the shineAnother noticeable change from how Indias seamers operated in Rajkot was the way they hid the shine in Vizag. Both Shami and Umesh have started carrying the ball in the non-bowling hand in the run-up and it had two benefits - the obvious one is that hiding the shine betrays the swing later and also, transferring the ball from non-bowling hand to the bowling hand while loading helps you to hold the action together better. At times the non-bowling arm doesnt work as much as it should but the moment you start transferring the ball while loading, youre forced to make the non-bowling arm work appropriately. ' ' '