{"id":234373,"date":"2025-10-30T17:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/234373\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T17:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:24:08","slug":"tributes-paid-to-cricketer-17-who-died-after-being-hit-in-neck-by-ball-during-practice-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/234373\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes paid to cricketer, 17, who died after being hit in neck by ball during practice session"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Austin, 17, was training in cricket nets wearing a helmet but not wearing a neck guard when he was hit but a ball thrown using a handheld ball launcher, known as a wanger.<\/p>\n

Emergency services raced to the scene at Ferntree Gully in Melbourne before taking Ben to hospital in critical condition.<\/p>\n

He was put on life support but died on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Ben\u2019s father Jace Austin said the family was \u201cutterly devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said in a statement: “For Tracey and I, Ben was an adored son, deeply loved brother to Cooper and Zach and a shining light in the lives of our family and friends,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This tragedy has taken Ben from us, but we find some comfort that he was doing something he did for so many summers – going down to the nets with mates to play cricket.<\/p>\n

“He loved cricket and it was one of the joys of his life.”<\/p>\n

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Cricket Victoria chief executive officer Nick Cummins\u00a0said: \u201cThe ball hit him in the neck in a similar accident that Phil Hughes suffered 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2014 Australian test international Phil Hughes died after being hit in the neck by a ball while batting in the Sheffield Shield.<\/p>\n

Neck protectors, often known as stem guards, are clip-on attachments to helmets which provide additional protection to a player\u2019s neck and upper spine.<\/p>\n

They have been mandatory in elite cricket in Australia since late 2023.<\/p>\n

Michael Vaughan posted online: \u201cRIP Ben Austin .. Gone far too young .. Thoughts are with all his family and close friends xxx.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cricket Australia posted: \u201cCricket Australia is devastated at the passing of 17-year-old Melbourne cricketer Ben Austin following an accident while batting in the nets on Tuesday night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Austin, 17, was training in cricket nets wearing a helmet but not wearing a neck guard when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-234373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}