Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on the young Australian cricketer who was killed after being struck by ball

A young cricketer, Ben Austin, was killed after he was struck in the neck by a cricket ball thrown at speed using a hand-held training device.

Paramedics treated the 17-year-old at the scene before he was taken to Monash Medical Centre in Clayton in a critical condition - where he later died in hospital.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says this took place at an after-school practice session.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murray Old Ozzie correspondents with that's alla muz Hello, Heather
good up and into you. You got some more details
on the death of that cruise passenger. That's right. She
was an eighty year old woman from New South Wales.
Suzanne Reese and her family absolutely furious she was left
behind on that island, Lizard Island, on the weekend. She

(00:23):
was at the start. This cruise ship was making a
circumnavigation of Australia, and of course great excitement, I'll understand,
was the first weekend of this trip and they put
into Lizard Island and those who want to go ashore
for a bushwalk are allowed to do so. They're on
bought the Coral Adventurer by the way, So they've gone
ashore from an excursion on Saturday. Miss rees amongst them.

(00:46):
She's eighty years old, she's a mum at grandmother. She's
gone ashore. We're told she's very, very fit. She used
to enjoy bushwalking, a very outdoorsy fit eighty year old.
But on this walk that she became ill, we understand,
and she was asked to head back down towards the ship.
Now everybody's come back that afternoon around five o'clock. We

(01:09):
understand the crew did not realize that Miss Lee's was
not on board until dinner time. Right, no check was
done when the guests returned from Lizard Island, So at
dinner time they've started checking the vessel. The crew's gone
from top to bottom. Ten o'clock the alarm is raised.
On Saturday night, half a dozen crew hopping a little
Zodiac style boat and raced back to Lizard Island and

(01:32):
the Coral Adventurer turns around, gets back after midnight and
the body was found on Sunday. As I say, the
ship was on the second day of a circumnavigation of
the country, and well, you know, a Missri's family is
absolutely furious. It's just amazing to me. I must have
done a ten or a dozen cruises, and it's like
military operation. When you go on and off of a

(01:55):
cruise ship, they check you off. You have to have
like photo ID. It's just beyond imagination how this has happened. Yeah,
fair point. Listen, how did this cricketer die after getting
the ball in the neck? What happened here? Well, there
are so many eerie similarities with what happened to a
Test player back on twenty fourteen, young guy Philip Hughes,

(02:17):
he was batting in a Sheffield Shield match at the
Sydney Cricket Ground and he was hitting the neck by
a bouncer. They say he was dead before he hit
the ground. It hit him right in the back of
the neck. He was wearing a helmet, but the ball
he's turned around as the balls come in. The balls
hit him in the back of the neck. It's just
popped that very important artery that I can't remember the

(02:37):
name of the artery but supplies blood to the brain.
And the poor Philip Hughes is dead before he hits
the deck. It's that quick. He actually was turned off
by his family two days later. And that's what's happened
with this poor young fellow down in Melbourne. He was batting.
It was an after school practice. He was having what
they call throwdowns as a mechanical ball chucker, and it

(02:58):
just chucks balls at batsmen and it looks like he's
ducked into a ball and he's got that in the neck.
He too was wearing a helmet. This young fellow, Ben Austen,
he was treaded at the scene and rushed off the
hospital but he could not be saved. Mom, Dan and
two brothers were there when he died. Now some club cricketers,
of course, will be wearing black armbands this weekend. It's
just so sad. A young guy, apparently he had a

(03:19):
great at football as well, a real lovely young man,
hadn't finished school yet and now he's gone. So it's
just so sad. So is there maybe a case for
dropping the helmet a little bit at the back and
creating a bit of a shield for the back of
the neck. Well, they've done that, Heather, they've done that.
There's actually a little sort of flap that comes around
down the back. I don't know what it's made of.

(03:40):
When I was playing Test crip, when I was playing
Test cricket, when I was playing cricket all those years ago,
we didn't have helmelets. We only had little caps and
I don't remember anyone ever getting hit in the head.
And I don't think we're bowling fast enough to get
up that high. Yeah, but yes, after Philip Hughes it
was mandatory you had to have these little things attached
to the bom of a helmet, a bit like a

(04:01):
press dad thing, I guess, And it acts as sort
of a color, but it didn't help you, young Ben.
I'm afraid and he's passed away. Buddy also said, unfortunate, Maz,
thank you very much, appreciate it. Murray OL's Australia correspondent.
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.