Name: Victorian cricket club mandates neck guards for junior players
Uploaded: 2025-12-31T06:31:19.189Z
Duration: 1 min 34 s
Description: Lorimer Cricket Club in Victoria has become the first community club to require neck guards for all junior players, following the recent death of 17-year-old Ben Austin, who was struck in the neck by a cricket ball.

Lorimer Cricket Club in Victoria has become the first community club to require neck guards for all junior players, following the recent death of 17-year-old Ben Austin, who was struck in the neck by a cricket ball.

Doreen

Lorimer Cricket Club in Doreen, Victoria, has introduced a world-first policy requiring all junior players under 18 to wear neck guards while batting. This decision follows the deaths of Phil Hughes and Ben Austin, both struck in the neck by cricket balls, which raised concerns about player safety.

While Cricket Australia made neck guards mandatory for domestic and international players in 2023, there is no such requirement at the community level, leaving individual clubs to set their own policies. Lorimer's initiative has received strong support and is prompting other associations to consider similar safety measures.

Victorian cricket club mandates neck guards for junior players

With stem guards fitted to the back of his helmet, 12-year-old Damon Fitzgerald protects his neck and his wicket. It's been more than 10 years since Phil Hughes was killed when a ball struck his neck at the SCG, and just two months since 17-year-old Ben Austin suffered a similar fate. It was a freak accident, but for it to happen again was, yeah, terrible. It left many asking could it have been prevented. Now one community club is trying to do just that. We as a club decided to make neck guards mandatory for all of our junior players under the age of 18. In a world first community cricket mandate, all 160 Lorimer Cricket Club juniors will be required to wear the extra protection before taking the crease. It's horrible what happened to Ben, what happened to Phil, and we don't want that to happen to our club. We are highly supportive of that. We think it's a great initiative from Lorimer. Cricket Australia mandated stem guards for domestic and international players in 2023, but there's no requirement at club level cricket. We can't mandate this for our associations. It is something that we would leave up to them. Cricket Australia strongly recommends the use of neck protectors for all community level players, but it's up to the individual clubs to make it policy. Following Lorimer's mandate, other associations are now considering taking the step. If everyone follows the lead, it can't be a bad thing. It makes us obviously feel safer. A $20 piece of plastic for a whole lot of peace of mind. Abbey Dinnam, 10 News.

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