Daniel Brettig, in ESPNcricinfo, 14 October 2016, with title “Clarify bouncer laws, Phillip Hughes inquest told”
Category Archives: violent intrusions
Call for Clarification of Bouncer Laws at Inquest into the Phil Hughes Death
Doug Bollinger on Back Foot in Phil Hughes Inquest
Peter Lalor, in The Australian, 13 October 2016, where the title is “Hughes witness puts Bollinger on the back foot”
A last-minute statement by a new witness has contradicted claims by senior cricketers to the NSW Coroner that Phillip Hughes was not sledged or targeted with short-pitched bowling. The tragedy of Hughes’s death was revisited yesterday with bowler Sean Abbott’s moving account of cradling the fallen batsman on the pitch after he’d been struck a fatal blow. But the sideshow that the inquest into the accident has become was also on display when Matthew Day, a former Australian under-19 player and friend of the Hughes family, offered a statement to the NSW Coroner’s Court stating that Doug Bollinger told him he regretted saying on the day the words “I am going to kill you”.
Day’s recollection sets him at odds with the other players, including South Australia’s Tom Cooper, who was a pallbearer with Day at Hughes’s funeral. Day also claimed the NSW bowling coach at the time told him he was upset there were plans to bowl short to Hughes, who was struck and killed by a bouncer.
Doug Bolinger on the field 2016—Pic by Phil Hillyard
Matthew Day at hospital after Phillip Hughes was injured —Pic by John Grainger
Alex Kontouris faces “Chin Music” at the Coronial Inquest into Phil-Hughes’ Death
Michael Roberts
Alex Kountouris, a Cypriot Australian physiotherapist from Melbourne, was recruited as masseur and physiotherapist for the Sri Lankan cricket team in1995 or so by new coach Dav Whatmore. He rendered yeoman service and was a vital cog in the management programme that enabled Sri Lanka’s cricketers to win the World Cup in 1996. The island repaid him handsomely albeit involuntarily: he married a lass from that land.
He has since moved to higher levels back home in Australia: he became the cricket team’s physiotherapist in 2006. It is in this capacity and because of his experience that he was called as a witness in the coroner’s inquiry in Sydney into the tragic death of Philip Hughes by bouncer-blow on 25th November 2014. As far as I know, he was not present on the ground that day so his testimony could not provide direct evidence. Continue reading
Against Verbal Intimidation in Cricket: A Voice in A Wasteland
Michael Roberts
Some of the illuminating details that surfaced at the recent coroner’s inquiry in Sydney into the death of Philip Hughes when a bouncer bust an artery in his neck display the continuing prevalence of verbal assaults in the heart of Australian cricket and the legitimacy accorded to this ‘philosophical pillar.’ Verbal intimidation is often a twin brother of intimidating bouncers. Bouncers are now restricted — no more than one or two per over. Verbal intimidation is not — and the coroner’s verdict in Sydney only sustained, albeit inadvertently, the official blanket thrown around the practice. I will be writing more on these specifics around the verbal and bouncer assault on the turncoat New South Welshman Hughes by his former state buddies in the near future, but let me return to my old campaign against a macho cricketing practice that undermines the principle of a level playing field : namely, the use of verbal intimidation by those more versed and hardened in that practice. I present here one of my first (ineffective) blows from the year 2001 – an article entitled “Against Verbal Intimidation in Cricket” in http://www.ozlanka.com/commentary/intimidation.htm
Kusal Perera Exonerated
KUSAL golu muhuthen goda pān-na!!
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/osd.jsESPN Cricinfo News Item, where the title is “Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman Kusal Perera cleared of doping charges
Kusal Perera, the Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman, is free to resume playing cricket with immediate effect after the ICC lifted the provisional suspension imposed on him for doping. The ICC said there was no decisive evidence that Perera, who was suspended in December 2015, had used performance-enhancing substances after a detailed examination of the Qatar-based testing facility’s finding 19-Norandrostenedione – the banned substance – in Perera’s sample.
Controversy bedevils Sri Lanka Cricket’s Selection Process
ONE: “Kapila speaks Out,” in Daily News, 9 March 2016
Former chairman of cricket selectors Kapila Wijegunawardene spoke to the Daily News and gave his version of the events that led to the removal of his selection committee which also included Brendon Kuruppu, Amal Silva and Hemantha Wickremaratne. Their bone of contention was that they were unceremoniously removed. “We feel humiliated about the fact that without adducing any tangible reasons the media was informed that we have been sacked,” said Wijegunawardene. He further stated he was informed by a telephone call at 11 pm on Monday by an official who identified himself as the director-general of sports and told that they ceased to serve as national selectors with immediate effect.
Achchaaaru, Mallun and Mayhem in the Selection Process at Sri Lanka Cricket
Sa’adi Thawfeeq, courtesy of the Daily News, 8 March 2016,where the title is “Chaos at SLC over selection policy”
On the eve of the Sri Lanka cricket team’s departure to the ICC World Twenty20 in India tonight mayhem and confusion over selection differences has arisen between Sri Lanka Cricket administrators and the current national selectors. There was further speculation that the Sports Minister has changed the current set of selectors and a new selection committee has been appointed yesterday night to make whatever changes that needs to be done to the already picked squad of 15.
… 
And is this a symbolic expression of the state of the team? –courtesy of Islandcricket?
As to how a new selection committee can make changes or pick a squad for a T20 World Cup without any sort of knowledge and in-depth study on the players’ performance is questionable. Continue reading
Sri Lanka mauled, besmirched and quartered
Michael Roberts
New Zealand made mincemeat out of the Sri Lankan batting and hammered the bowling to the kingdoms beyond inn two consecutive ODIs. Home advantage is not the only reason surely. Sri Lanka’s batting was poor, the Kiwi bowling attack (with several reserves in the squad) was sharp, the fielding in the second ODI was brilliant. But WOW what a gap in performance and thus in implied capacity between the two sides. Congratulations to New Zealand, its pacies … and to Guptill yesterday for a brilliant innings –outdoing Jayasuriya in his prime and matching Ab Villiers today…
New Zealands Martin Guptill celebrates ….(AP Photo/NZ Herald, Mark Mitchell)
When Duleep Mendis was felled by Thomson at the Oval, 11 June 1975
Mevan Pieris, in an email note to a relative who sent him the first of these images
“I remember the incident very clearly. Duleep Mendis was batting superbly, striking the Australian bowlers with great ease on a perfect and placid London Oval pitch. He was about 35 runs when Thompson was re-introduced into the attack for his second spell. Thompson was unimaginably fast (100 mph) and deadly as the ball was slung by him with a whipping action and would cut back to the right hander off the pitch. The particular delivery which felled Duleep I saw clearly: it was pitched short outside the off stump and Mendis shaped for a sizzling cut which was his favourite shot. But alas, the ball cut back and struck him right in the centre of the temple.
Our dressing room was upstairs in the main Oval Pavillion. As Mendis sank to the ground, Denis Chanmugam and I ran to the pitch instantly. I found Duleep in a hopeless situation with his eye balls turning upwards. Denis and I lifted him up and carried him back to the pavilion. Mendis was made of steel and you can see him even in this hopeless situation shielding his eyes from the burning sun. Continue reading