With questions being raised over the degree of safety provided by protective gears in cricket in the wake of the Phil Hughes incident, the manufacturer of the injured cricketer’s helmet, Masuri, has said that the Australian batsman was wearing an older and lighter headgear.
A spokesman for the UK-based company said that Hughes was wearing an old helmet instead of their their latest model, in the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and South Australia at the SCG on Tuesday.
The company said they were studying video footage of the freak incident and wished Hughes a speedy recovery.
“From the footage and pictures currently available to Masuri, it appears that Phil Hughes was struck by the ball to the rear of the grille and below the back of the shell, missing his Masuri Original Test model helmet,” the spokesman was quoted as saying by Australian press.
“This is a vulnerable area of the head and neck that helmets cannot fully protect, while enabling batsmen to have full and proper movement.”
Masuri had launched a new model of helmet that covers the back of the batsmen’s head in August last year, but it seems Hughes was not wearing the latest model while batting in the Sheffield Shield match.
Hughes continued to fight for life as he remained in a critical condition after being struck on the head in a freak accident on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old left-hander, who was on the verge of a Test recall, was hit on the lower head by a Sean Abbot bouncer on Tuesday following which he underwent an emergency surgery and was placed in an induced coma in the Intensive Care Unit of the St Vincent’s Hospital here.
The spokesman, however, refused to comment on whether the latest model helmets could have prevented the injury.
“The newly-developed Masuri Vision Series helmet, which supersedes the 2013 helmet worn by Phil Hughes, does afford batsmen extra protection in this region -- and still allows comfortable movement,” he said.
