Inquest opens into death of batsman Phil Hughes

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:03 p.m. ET

foxsports

SYDNEY (AP) Cricket Australia has expressed hopes that an inquest into the death of test batsman Phil Hughes, which was opened on Monday by the New South Wales coroner, will have a positive outcome.

Hughes died on Nov. 27, 2014, two days after being struck in the neck by a short-pitched delivery during a Sheffield Shield match at Sydney between his South Australia state and New South Wales.

State coroner Michael Barnes opened the five-day inquest by saying that, to his family, Hughes was ''much more than a fabulous cricketer. Phillip Hughes was before anything else, a son and a brother.''

Barnes will examine the circumstances surrounding Hughes' death, including whether the nature of play exacerbated the risk of injury, whether the response to his injury was appropriate and whether a different type of batting helment would have reduced the likelihood of death.