{"id":931741,"date":"2026-10-17T18:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T18:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931741\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T18:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T18:36:29","slug":"ben-austins-parents-dont-want-cricket-changed-despite-tragic-death-of-perfect-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931741\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Austin\u2019s parents don\u2019t want cricket changed despite tragic death of \u2018perfect\u2019 son"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grieving parents of Ben Austin \u2014 the teenager killed in a freak accident<\/a> while playing cricket \u2014 say they don\u2019t want his death to change the game.<\/p>\n

At a coronial inquest, Jace and Tracey Austin say their boy loved the sport and he would want it to stay just as it is.<\/p>\n

Coroner Simon McGregor said told the court on Friday that he won\u2019t be making recommendations for change.<\/p>\n

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Despite being overcome with emotion, the grieving parents agreed, determined to pay tribute to their beautiful Ben<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day is brutal, I\u2019ll be honest, every day is brutal,\u201d Jace Austin said outside the court, while Tracey pointed to the gold B on her necklace.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe coronial inquest into how 17-year-old Ben Austin lost his life has honoured the wishes of his devastated parents. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

\u201cGot him close to my heart … my boy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ben was just 17 he died in a tragic accident last October after he was hit in the neck with a cricket ball while practising his batting with friends at Ferntree Gully.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just wanted to play the great game as much as he could and keep it going and not have any hindrance to it,\u201d Jace said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the perfect boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The teenager spent two days on life support at the Monash Children\u2019s Hospital but couldn\u2019t be saved.<\/p>\n

McGregor confirmed Ben suffered an intracranial haemorrhage and a ruptured artery.<\/p>\n

He also acknowledged his family\u2019s wishes, saying the cricket season that is upon us can continue.<\/p>\n

Cricket Australia is already undertaking a review to minimise risks and improve player safety and will use the tragedy to guide any subsequent actions.<\/p>\n

But Jace was firm that he did not want change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way do we want to change this great game. It was a freak accident. But then, on the other hand, we don\u2019t want another one, another Benny or Phil,\u201d Jace said, the latter a reference to Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, who died in 2014 when he was hit in the neck by a bouncer during a Sheffield Shield match.<\/p>\n

The court will deliver its final report in mid-November, allowing Ben\u2019s parents time to grieve the first anniversary of his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps to get his name out there. We were worried that he\u2019s going to be forgotten, but he\u2019s going to outlive us all, the little bugger,\u201d Jace said.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grieving parents of Ben Austin \u2014 the teenager killed in a freak accident while playing cricket \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85],"class_list":["post-931741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931741","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=931741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}