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The coroners inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes should have been an opportunity for cricket to learn from its most public tragedy and ensure that the game was safer from now on. Portland Trail Blazers Pro Shop . But because of the extreme hurt felt by the Hughes family, and the players feeling like they were on trial, what transpired did not benefit cricket or the family.There is no doubt that the New South Wales team was trying to bounce Hughes out when he was struck fatally. There is little doubt, with some of the players involved, that harsh words would have been said.Whether what Dougie Bollinger allegedly said was, I am going to kill you, to Hughes or not really shouldnt matter. Bollinger is a joke figure, Australian crickets doofus clown prince, and he is a former team-mate of Hughes. No one in Australian cricket takes anything he says seriously. And while intent and words matter, what matters most is the ball that ultimately struck Hughes. That is the villain; that was the killer.Hughes wasnt the last player to be subjected to a barrage of them, and that is what the inquest should have been about: how to make facing a bouncer as safe as we can make it.There was talk in the immediate aftermath of banning the bouncer. It was an extreme reaction to an extreme situation. It was never truly taken seriously, and as the days turned into weeks after Hughes death, they got quieter and quieter. Like many things in cricket, once the heat of the moment was gone, there was no intellectual conversation about the bouncer. We just went back to business as usual.That was the mistake of cricket. Cricket as a business, as a sport, as a thing of love and beauty, has a responsibility to those who play it to take the bouncer conversation seriously.Bowling is as quick as it has ever been.Recently Ive been involved in two conversations with respected cricket writers telling me bowling isnt any more rapid now than in the previous generations.One argument was that bowling had always been fast; it had just never been properly measured before. That Fred Spofforth was quick, or Harold Larwood was quick. That explanation doesnt hold up when you think that overarm bowling only became popular in Spofforths lifetime (even he started playing cricket as an underarm bowler). The original overarm techniques were actually side-arm, much like drunken versions of Lasith Malingas action. So Spofforths early tinkerings would have only been so quick.The Larwood theory plays into the second conversation I had - about the old days, when players were amateur unlike today. These amateurs didnt worry about the next game, about resting themselves, about slowing down, and when their body felt right. They came in and bowled with all the pace they had. Part of the problem with that theory is that Larwood was a professional and played a lot of cricket. So were all the great West Indian bowlers. Many of them were overworked physically by bowling.But really, the conversation was about the name that comes up every time people talk about fast bowling: Jeff Thomson.Thommo was quick. Thommo would probably be quick now. And Thommo was so quick now that his balls travel through time and bowl out anyone who suggests bowlers are quicker now.Whether it be Larwood, Trueman, Hall or Thommo, there is no doubt that bowlers from other eras have bowled quick. How quick, that is for drunken conversations with your uncle.One man, with an incredible human catapult action, whose muscles seemed perfectly set up to hurl, might be the quickest bowler of all time. But not every bowler was like Thommo.In the 1979 speed bowling competition, Thommo was 6kph quicker than Michael Holding in second place. That was when Holding was in his prime and Thommo had started to slow down after injuring his shoulder. Thommos quickest was 147.9kph. He averaged 142.3kph while Holdings fastest ball was slower than that. Thommo was the only bowler clocked at over 145kph (90mph) in that test. The fastest of Len Pascoe, one of those tested, clocked more than 15kph slower than Thommo. Richard Hadlee was slower.And while the speed gun technology seems to have evolved like fast bowling itself, this is the only guide we have.So Thommo wasnt like every bowler out there. He towered over the others in this test. And during this same era there were many other bowlers who were playing Test cricket as seamers - Sarfraz Nawaz, who shuffled in like an old man trying to get his shopping done, Max Walker, whose action seemed to strangle his own pace, and Madan Lal, who could have out run the odd delivery in his follow-through. New Zealand had an endless supply of medium-pace.Those bowlers barely exist anymore. Even bowlers like Tim Southee, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jason Holder are far quicker than them. And all three of those bowlers, at times, have been said to be not quick enough. In fact, Southee and Bhuvneshwar have put on extra pace just to survive. There was a time when you needed to bowl 90mph to be seen to bowl quick. Were now getting to the point where you need to bowl 90mph to get picked.There might have been faster bowlers in the past, but there has never been a time with more fast bowlers.Allrounders used to be slow first-change bowlers like Walker. The allrounders who bowl these days are Chris Morris, Ben Stokes, Mitch Marsh, Andre Russell, Tim Bresnan and Sean Abbott. None of these guys are slow. At their top speeds, they are fast-medium. Stokes and Russell are quicker than that. The true evolution of fast bowling isnt the top speeds. Perhaps Thommo was the quickest, or maybe the fastest was from the Tait, Brett Lee and Akhtar era. But the true test of how much quicker bowling has become is how many people these days can bowl around 90mph.England can pick from Steven Finn, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett, Ben Stokes, Jake Ball and Chris Woakes as their first-choice seamers. Woakes was seen as too slow when he started. This summer he was clocking over 90mph. And if youre batting in county cricket you could be facing Stuart Meaker, Tony Roland-Jones, Mark Footit, Tymal Mills, Boyd Rankin, Jamie Overton, Matt Coles, Kyle Abbott, Fidel Edwards or Tino Best.There was a time when Australia scared the cricket world with two proper quick bowlers in Thommo and Lillee. After that, West Indies dominated cricket with four quick bowlers for two generations. Now England regularly take in four bowlers who are around 90mph and its barely commented on. South Africa could easily do the same. Even India, for years the laughing stock of fast bowling talent, have Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron bowling very quick. The days of New Zealands army of military medium is well and truly over.Even first-class teams often have multiple fast bowlers in their XIs now. When the helmet was invented there were probably only a handful of bowlers who could bowl at 90mph. Now there are probably at least 50, and that number will soon be 100.That is not even mentioning the left-armers. Until Wasim Akram there had been one left-arm quick bowler with more than 150 Test wickets. Now they are everywhere. And as England and South Africa showed when facing Mitchell Johnson, its a whole different set of skills needed to try and survive a physical attack from a left-arm bowler at top-end pace.This is the natural evolution of cricket. Not individual bowlers being express, but many players bowling fast. And like rugby is struggling with the fact that their players are bigger and faster now, crickets struggle is going to be with the fact there have never been as many bouncers bowled at this pace as there are right now.That will mean more chances occurring of what happened to Hughes. And that is what the discussion has to be about.Can we stop the ball going through the grill of the helmet? Is the heart in danger from being hit at 90mph? Are there proper concussion guidelines in place? With batsmen brought up wearing helmets getting hit more often, is CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) going to be a problem in cricket? Are the medical procedures adequate at international and first-class games? Is there a way we can ever protect the throat? And are the new neck protectors going to save a batsman?These are the questions that scientists, doctors, cricketers, the ICC and helmet manufacturers should be working on together. At the moment, it seems like the helmet makers are trying to catch up, and while they are doing a good job, there is only so much money in selling a cricket helmet. The real money and help should come from within the cricket industry itself.Perhaps the coroners inquest was not the perfect place to talk about protecting cricketers as there was so much emotion around it. But we must now have this conversation. Cricket should have had a safety summit to try to make the game safer. The game owes it to Phil Hughes and to every player who picks up a bat. Jack Ramsay Jersey . - Connor McDavid scored 53 seconds into overtime as the Erie Otters came from behind to defeat the visiting Guelph Storm 4-3 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Steve Johnson Jersey . Bradwell was scheduled to become a free agent Tuesday. Born and raised in Toronto, Bradwell is entering his sixth CFL season, with all six played for his hometown Argonauts. https://www.cheapblazersonline.com/828i-...ey-blazers.html . There was no hesitation from the 40th-ranked Pospisil, from Vernon, B.C., who admitted that he cut back on his training sessions over the last few days to conserve energy as the long ATP season finishes next week at the Paris Masters. ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Detroit Lions running back Theo Riddick is one of four players ruled out for Sundays game against the Los Angeles Rams.Riddick has missed all three days of practice this week with an ankle injury after scoring two touchdowns last Sunday against Philadelphia. He has become Detroits top running back with Ameer Abdullah on injured reserve.The Lions will also be without defensive tackle Haloti Ngata (shoulder), tight end Eric Ebron (knee/ankle) and linebacker DeAndre Levy (knee/quad).Lions coach Jim Caldwell acknowledged Friday the teams offense will shift a little bit with Riddick out of the lineup. He has 50 carries for 171 yards and 26 receptions for 190 yards and three touchdowns this season.Hes got a uniqueness, which is obvious. You just dont find many guys, check through the history, that do what he does, Caldwell said. We do have, if he cannot go for whatever reason, we do have a number of guys that I think are capable of doing the things that we need to get done.We may not do exactly the same things we do with him, but in terms of our offensive scheme, it doesnt shut down a whole area of our offense. We just have to maybe do it a little different way.Rookie running back Dwayne Washington, who is listed as questionable with an ankle injury after missing last week against the Eagles, will likely fill in for Riddick along with newly signed Justin Forsett and second-year pro Zach Zenner.Meanwhile, the Lions will likely get their best defensive player back Sunday.Defensive end Ezekiel Ansah said his ankle has been feeling good and said he would be ready to go if he is active Sunday against the Rams. He is officially listed as questionable.Ansah has missed thhe past three games with a high ankle sprain -- an injury he suffered on the first series of the second week of the season against Tennessee. Calvin Natt Jersey. He had not been seen at a Detroit practice since until Wednesday, when he practiced on a limited basis.He participated in all three days of Lions practice this week and Caldwell said Ansah is going to be a captain against the Rams as long as he keeps progressing on the ankle as he has been. Caldwell said Friday that Ansah has been trending in the right direction.Physically, Im able to walk now so I feel good, Ansah said. Ive been out there trying to run around a little bit. But right now Im just trying to work as hard to do my best to come out there.In Ansah, Detroit would get its most productive pass-rusher back. He had 14.5 sacks last season and has 30 sacks in the first three-plus seasons of his career.Hes a Pro Bowl player and you miss those guys. Youd like to say you dont miss them, and weve had guys that have done an outstanding job in his absence, but theyre not Ziggy, Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. Hes a special skill set. I mean you look throughout the league, theres not a lot of guys like him, you know, 6-5, 270, run the way he does, plays as hard as he does.So we miss him and whenever we get him back, well be glad to have him back, thats for sure.Both of Detroits starting guards -- Laken Tomlinson (neck) and Larry Warford (hip) -- are listed as questionable, as are defensive tackle AShawn Robinson (shoulder), wide receiver Anquan Boldin (ankle) and safety Don Carey (ribs). ' ' '