{"id":632183,"date":"2026-10-16T07:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T07:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632183\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T07:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T07:34:09","slug":"melbourne-teen-killed-playing-cricket-victim-of-misadventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632183\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne teen killed playing cricket victim of misadventure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">A teenage boy who died after being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2025\/11\/03\/teens-death-playing-cricket-drives-calls-for-neck-protectors-on-helmets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">struck in the neck during cricket training<\/a> was a victim of misadventure, a coroner has determined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Ben Austin, 17, was batting in the nets at Ferntree Gully, in Melbourne&#8217;s east, on the afternoon of October 28, 2025, when he was hit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">He took off his helmet and lay down on the ground, with his teammates believing he was mucking around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">They quickly called for help from their coach after they realised Ben was in trouble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The coach performed CPR until paramedics arrived and stabilised Ben, transferring him to hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">But the teen was ultimately found to be brain dead and died the following day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Victorian coroner Simon McGregor held a directions hearing on Friday, where he advised Ben&#8217;s parents there would not be an inquest into their son&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">McGregor had instead determined it was a case of misadventure by well-meaning young people who were using their cricket equipment properly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">There will also be no adverse findings against any person or organisation, the coroner indicated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Formal coronial findings will be delivered in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Ben&#8217;s parents, Jace and Tracey Austin, wiped away tears during Friday&#8217;s brief hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teenage boy who died after being struck in the neck during cricket training was a victim of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-632183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}