David Leggat: One of the saddest days the sport has known

Phillip Hughes is helped by New South Wales players after being struck on the head. Photo / Getty Images

This is not what sport, any sport, is supposed to be about.

Phillip Hughes isn't the only player in cricket to have died at the crease, but he is by a large distance the highest profile.

His death yesterday after being struck by a bouncer on Tuesday is among the saddest days cricket has known.

The game has wrestled with a variety of high-profile issues in recent times, some distinctly unsavoury.

Now the debate on use of batting helmets and improving them will run. The problem is helmets help but they don't guarantee a batsman's safety.

Had Hughes been struck, say, a couple of inches away from the point of impact, he may have given his head a shake and carried on trying to nail a place back in the Australian side for the opening test against India next week.

Such are the vagaries of the human body. Instead Hughes got desperately, tragically unlucky.

He was struck on the back, left side of his head - that is he had completed his attempted hook shot. He was ahead of the ball delivered by his former New South Wales teammate Sean Abbott.

Spare a thought for the shattered Abbott in all this. No amount of consoling, well-intentioned "chin up mate, it wasn't your fault" words will ever remove the moment for him.

Hughes, who came from country northern New South Wales to the big smoke at 16, epitomised the little Aussie battler so beloved in that country. He would have turned 26 this Sunday.