{"id":268250,"date":"2025-11-07T06:55:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268250\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T06:55:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:55:28","slug":"cricket-oval-painted-in-late-teens-honour-as-teammates-prepare-to-play-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268250\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket oval painted in late teen’s honour as teammates prepare to play again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Austin, 17, was hit in the head and neck area by a cricket ball while he was batting\ufeff in the nets at Wally Tew Reserve in Ferntree Gully on October 28.<\/p>\n

His family made the heartbreaking decision to switch off his life support three days later.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ferntree Gully Cricket Club oval was painted with a special tribute to late team member Ben Austin. (Facebook)\"BenThe 17-year-old was also described as a talented and passionate AFL umpire. (VAFA)<\/p>\n

\ufeffLast night Ferntree Gully Cricket Club players, staff, volunteers, and supporters gathered at the ground before training, where linemarkers had painted the initials BA and Ben’s cap number 512 on the oval.<\/p>\n

“Our coach Josh Henry had a quick few words before we all walked over to the nets to gather in a circle with a minute’s silence to remember Ben,” Ferntree Gully Cricket Club said in a post to Facebook.<\/p>\n

The cricket club announced it will mark a memorial round in Ben’s honour this weekend, with all games to feature a minute’s silence and a statement reflecting on the teenager’s life.<\/p>\n

\"BenPlayers and coaches gathered at the nets where Ben was fatally hit by a cricket ball last week. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

It will be the first time Ben’s teammates return to the fielding circle, after last week’s matches were postponed due to the tragedy.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Tributes for the Ferntree Gully teen reached the world’s top cricketers, as Australian and Indian players observed a minute’s silence near the boundary before the second T201 at the MCG last Friday.<\/p>\n

Players from both teams wore black armbands out of respect.<\/p>\n

Players from Victoria and Tasmania also held a minute’s silence before the final day of play in their Sheffield Shield clash in Melbourne last week.<\/p>\n

They lined up their bats and caps against the Junction Oval’s white picket fence and wore black armbands in memory of Austin, echoing the same tributes cricketers around the country made following the death of Test batter Phillip Hughes in 2014.<\/p>\n

\"BenFlowers, cricket jerseys, bats and mementos were left at the Wally Tew nets in memory of the Ferntree Gully teen. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

Black armbands were also worn by Australian and Indian players during the two sides’ Women’s World Cup semi-final overnight, as well as in the other two Shield matches currently under way in Brisbane and Perth.<\/p>\n

Ben was remembered by family and friends \ufeffas a respectful, caring and talented boy with a strong passion for sport.<\/p>\n

“He’s just the most special kid you could ever meet,” Ben’s uncle David Anstey said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The Australian cricket team observe a minutes silence for Ben Austin. (Getty)<\/p>\n

“He’s respectful of everyone, whether it’s his teammates, schoolmates, club members, old, young.”<\/p>\n

Ben’s cricket coach Josh Henry remembered the teenager as \ufeffa “perfect kid”.<\/p>\n

“Ben was a beautiful boy. He was so loving, caring, polite. He’d do anything for anyone,” he said.<\/p>\n

The nets at Wally Tew Reserve overflowed with flowers, bats and jerseys in the days following the talented teen’s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Austin, 17, was hit in the head and neck area by a cricket ball while he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-268250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268250","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=268250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}