Illustration of the type of helmet worn by Australia cricketer Phillip Hughes
Illustration of the type of helmet worn by Australia cricketer Phillip Hughes who suffered a serious head injury when he was hit by a "bouncer", with diagram explaining different types of ball deliveries in cricket. Reuters

The sport that has also been called a gentleman's game, Cricket, is more popularly equated with the merits of fair play and sportmanship not the dangers inherent to it being played. The tragic fatalities of 25-year old Phillip Hughes and a 60-year old Israeli cricket umpire over the past week however has raised concerns over the safety of the global sport.

Hughes' death is primarily attributed to two things: how the was cricket ball was bowled and where it hit his body.

The cricket ball delivery was a "bouncer" as it is commonly called, is a short-pitched fast bowl. It is pitched well short of the batsman and then it bounces up to chest or up head height as it reaches the batsman. Directing the ball this way to hit the batsman is legitimate as long and is recognized so. In fact, it is a tactic used to effectively to counter an extremely efficient batsman and has been part of the game for a long time. Bouncers since 2001 have been reduced to one every six bowls by the International Cricket Council.

Hughes was fatally struck by a cricket ball on the side and back of the neck; an area which remains relatively unprotected even in in current protective batting helmets. Current helmets now use the same projectile testing methods used to test baseball catcher's protective headgear.

"I feel that the safety factor of the modern day cricket gears and equipment needs to be evaluated in order to assess whether there is any further scope of improvement for better protection of the players," Jagmohan Dalmiya, former ICC president said via IBNlive

The New South Wales ambulance service for the Sydney Cricket Ground is now also under scrutiny. The medical service arrived in 15 minutes, almost twice the time from the 7.65 minutes average response time of ambulances across the state.

With Hughes' death, an investigation into player safety is being done, said Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland.

"All of those things around safety need to be looked at and will be considered but one of the things about the game of cricket is that it's a finely tuned balance between bat and ball," Sutherland said.