Stick Cricket changes bouncer graphics to honour Phillip Hughes' memories

Phillip Hughes

The creators of Stick Cricket game have made a minor change following the demise of Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, and from now on, a batsman hit by a bouncer wouldn’t collapse in a heap. Hughes was hit by a bouncer while batting in a Sheffield Shield game at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia, on November 25, 2014, and died a couple of days later at St. Vincent’s hospital unable to recover from the blow, which left the entire cricketing world in shock. 

The makers of the game, who were actually planning to improve the graphics so as to make a batsman falling down on the ground after being hit on his head more humourous, have now totally removed the concept, to honour Hughes' memories.

‘It was there for comedic value, not anymore’

Admitting that the bouncer graphics doesn’t sound funny anymore, Colin Rowe, creative director of Stick Sports, said: “We felt that the landscape had changed. It was there for comedic value, and when we first made Stick Cricket, no one had ever died from a head blow in professional cricket, so we felt justified to add the comedy.

“It’s sobering now and no longer funny, so we had a team meeting the day Phillip Hughes died and put plans to change the game with the very next update.”

 A bowler bowls a bouncer

Batsman misses the ball and gets hit

Batsman is floored

New changes

As per the change, when a batsman fails to execute a shot off a rising delivery, the ball would just go past him, instead of hitting him. Rowe, however, said that the adjustment would be phased in. 

Rowe said: “The bouncer has not yet been removed from all Stick Cricket mobile apps. It’s only from the Stick Cricket Premier League (SPL) version at this stage.

“Some updates, that include the removal of the head blow dismissal among other things, are still pending in other versions of the game. We have four Stick Cricket apps in the market and only SPL has been pushed out so far.”