Distance adds a certain air of detachment, as does the viewing of any particular incident on a short, grainy video clip.
Somebody you don’t know, a venue you’re not overly familiar with and in a scenario that could all too easily pass you by.
A split-second occurrence which pricks your conscience fleetingly before drifting away only to return to the fore every so often.
But it was the aforementioned scenario, of a sportsman in the act of competition, which made Phillip Hughes’ demise resonate across the world.
Tragedy is all around, an unalterable fact, yet that doesn’t make the events of the past week any simpler to understand. All of us are incapable of dictating fate and this was fate playing the cruelest and blackest of hands.
A cricketer, in his prime and excelling, becoming the victim of, as has been stated on too many occasions, a freak accident. It feels almost insincere to phrase it in that way but there is no other way to do it justice and nobody deserves what befell Hughes.
An inch here, a fraction of a second there and everything is okay. That is why so many paid tribute to Hughes. Not just cricketers but snooker players, footballers, rugby teams and many more. Millions turn up to play sport, whatever their game of choice may be, yet none think the worst can happen.
Thousands of times I’ve padded up, be it in practice or a game, and strolled out with no thought whatsoever of injury; the shock comes from of the stark reality and immediacy of it all. To place the outcome solely in the hands of fortune doesn’t feel meaningful enough and that is why the finger has been pointed at short-pitched bowling and the standard of batting helmets.
It’s a natural reaction as an outlet for blame is sought and they, given their close proximity to the whole episode, are the easiest of targets.
Yet this is wide of the mark.
Manufacturers are continually seeking ways to improve the performance of their equipment and if the bouncer wasn’t an issue last week, does it stand to reason that it is now?
I doubt if Hughes would’ve seen any problems with either and cricketers around the globe absolving Sean Abbott of any blame – and rightly so – indicates an understanding of what cricket is. The sport as we all know it didn’t administer the fatal blow.
I doubt that is of any consolation to those who knew Hughes, played alongside or against him and certainly not those on the field at the fateful moment.
The medical opinion placed this in the ‘one in a million’ category and that is the only sliver of light, if in fact any can really exist, among the all-enveloping blackness.
Phillip Hughes, regardless of his stature, was a cricketer just playing cricket; the simplicity and innocence of the act exaggerating the appalling nature of what we all now know.
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