Ben later died at Monash Children’s Hospital.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ben Austin died after being hit by a cricket ball during training in Melbourne. (Facebook: Waverley Park Hawks Junior Football Club)<\/p>\n
The cricketing world also bowed its head and raised its bat for Ben with figures at the highest level of the game mourning his death.<\/p>\n
Mr Austin described his son as a “beautiful person” and said he would have been “stoked” by tributes being paid at all levels of the sport.<\/p>\n
“To hear Benny’s voice again \u2026 I’d do anything. I’d give up everything. I’d swap places with him just to hear his voice again,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photos of Melbourne teen Ben Austin were placed on the scoreboard at Friday’s Sheffield Shield match. (ABC News: Jason Katsaras)<\/p>\n
The grieving father this afternoon visited the nets where his young son was tragically killed.<\/p>\n
He said he wanted to be “where [Ben] last stood”.<\/p>\n
“Then the sun come through the clouds \u2014 just what we needed,” he said.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of people stood for a minute’s silence at the MCG tonight ahead of Australia’s second T20 match against India.<\/p>\n
Players of both sides, wearing black armbands in his honour, along with a packed crowd, paid tribute to the “inspiring young cricketer” and “passionate and talented sportsman”.<\/p>\n
At St Kilda’s Junction Oval in Melbourne a scheduled Sheffield Shield match between Victoria and Tasmania opened with a minute’s silence for the fallen 17-year-old.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Sheffield Shield match in Melbourne had an emotional, sombre start. (ABC News: Jason Katsaras)<\/p>\n
Players laid their bats out in tribute, while photos of Ben were projected onto the scoreboard.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Victorian players paid tribute to Ben Austin by laying their bats out. (ABC News: Jason Katsaras)<\/p>\n
In Navi Mumbai on Thursday night the Australian women’s cricket team wore black armbands as they took to the field for their World Cup semi-final, paying tribute to Ben.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alyssa Healy and her teammates wore black armbands in honour of Ben Austin in their World Cup semifinal. (Getty Images\/ICCL: Alex Davidson)<\/p>\n
Former test batsman and coach for Australia, Darren Lehmann, said the cricket community had been rocked by the death.<\/p>\n
“It’s just shock isn’t it? Our thoughts are obviously with the families involved, and to lose someone so young to a tragic incident is unbelievable,” he told ABC Melbourne radio.<\/p>\n
“It just brought back, obviously, memories of Phillip Hughes and what happened there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s a dangerous game, cricket, so we’ve got to make sure we’re taking all the safety measures we possibly can.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sheffield Shield players wrapped black armbands on themselves during the match. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca)<\/p>\n
Cricket Victoria chief executive Nick Cummins said the response from the cricketing world following Ben’s death had been “bittersweet”.<\/p>\n
“It makes you so proud to realise how connected the cricket community is and how much we look after each other,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to put yourself in the Austin family’s position.”<\/p>\n
It was not just the sport’s biggest stars who were sending their condolences to the Austin family.<\/p>\n
On social media, families around the country posted photos and messages, putting cricket bats outside their homes to acknowledge the tragedy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hundreds of Australian families posted to social media using the tag #BatsOutForBen. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Club remembers ‘beautiful’ young leader<\/p>\n
The cricket nets at Wally Tew Reserve remained draped in cricket jerseys, flowers and handwritten notes on Friday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bouquets of flowers lay side by side with cricket bats at the Wally Tew Reserve. (ABC News: Cameron Parke)<\/p>\n
Teammates and friends left favourite snacks and scrawled messages on cricket bats, sharing their own personal memories of Ben.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Friends of Ben Austin shared their memories of him on their bats. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
President of the Ferntree Gully Cricket Club, Lee Thompson, said Ben was “the most respectful kid” one could meet.<\/p>\n
“You’d be proud to have him as your son, or your brother,” Mr Thompson said.<\/p>\n
“He was the first to do the dishes in the kitchen, he was the first to put his hand and say ‘g’day’.”<\/p>\n
Mr Thompson said the tragedy had brought everyone involved in the sport together.<\/p>\n
“It’s really, really affected the cricket community, forget about just Australia or our area around here,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Someone so young, in the prime of his life. That’s what’s really hurting.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The tributes stretched out of frame as more members of the community came to pay their respects on Friday morning. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Mr Thompson said he had been overwhelmed by the support and was sure the family was also overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
Josh Henry had coached Ben for the past four years and said he had been a fixture at the club since he was a young child.<\/p>\n
“He was just a really loving, caring, beautiful boy,” Mr Henry said.<\/p>\n
“As a young kid he was a leader. A lot of people looked up to him and he was ruthless in his pursuit for excellence.”<\/p>\n
The nets at Wally Tew Reserve draped in cricket jerseys, flowers and handwritten notes. (ABC News: Rachel Clayton)<\/p>\n
Cricket fans and spectators shocked by death<\/p>\n
Almost all the spectators at Victoria’s Sheffield Shield match on Friday were aware of the tragedy at Ferntree Gully during the week.<\/p>\n
Hugh Smith’s daughter plays cricket, and he said the tragedy had shocked him into action.<\/p>\n
“You think of cricket naturally as a pretty safe, easy going sport,” Mr Smith said.<\/p>\n
“I won’t lie, I was straight onto the Greg Chappell Cricket Centre this morning, looking up stem guards protectors for the helmet.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hugh Smith says he immediately started browsing protective equipment for his daughter. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Sarah Lamb is visiting from the UK, and said the tragedy crossed all cultural barriers.<\/p>\n
“My children have played cricket all their lives, and sometimes it’s easy to forget it is a dangerous sport,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Lamb said her heart went out to the Austin family.<\/p>\n
“You can only hope in time they can think he was doing something that he absolutely loved,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fleur and Edward Faulkner in the stands at the Sheffield Shield. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Fleur and Edward Faulkner were also at the Sheffield Shield match, and shared the shock of the news.<\/p>\n
Mr Faulkner said as a cricket player himself, the death hit close to home.<\/p>\n
“You don’t really think about it too much when you go in there, you’re just having fun and you’re playing with your mates, you never expect something like that to happen,” Ms Faulkner said.<\/p>\n
“I think more regulations about the helmets are going to come in \u2026 [as] it should be, safety needs to be the number one priority.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of Melbourne teenager Ben Austin, who died after an accident at cricket training, has said his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,149101,740,1300,7186,44,149850,1542],"class_list":["post-253271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-austin","tag-cricket","tag-death","tag-nets","tag-news","tag-phil-hughes","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}