Why Sean Abbott and the world must move on

Players pause for a moment of silence in respect for Phillip Hughes before a domestic match in Melbourne

Sport is but a mere reflection of life – in truth, it’s an exaggerated version of it. Think of it like a sales guy; you don’t scream when you win a tough deal, you don’t cry when you lose an important one, a celebration of success is often muted, the anguish of waiting is often disguised, the sorrow of loss is usually seclusion.

But it’s not for a lack of emotion that it is this way; it’s for a lack of expression.

Sport though takes away that polite correctness; it allows us to express joy, sorrow, nervousness, tension, heartache and every other emotion in equal measure. A super clenched fist for a hard fought point in tennis, a ripped t-shirt for last-gasp goal in football, a primal howl for a final ball win in cricket. The list is large.

It’s larger than life, but even so it only reflects life, even for a spectator as much for a competitor.

And sport, like life, is capable of producing shocks, of creating accidents, and because the emotion involved with sport is way much more expressive, when it causes death, there is an increased sense of unjustness. Any life cut short by a freak accident is a tragedy, but an accident in sport gives rise to increased emotional activity, and that’s because it’s more visible, it’s more media savvy (for the lack of a better word), and it gains more attention.

The extra focus that a sports accident generates compared to ones that happen off the field, is not necessarily right, but that doesn’t mean we can’t understand it.

Why Phillip Hughes’s passing away has affected us all

When Phillip Hughes was struck by the ball that caused his untimely death, it brought about an extraordinary outpouring of emotion, and it is absolutely deserved. Living in India, I don’t know of every 25-year-old that died in an accident across the world, but the one I know about, the person I’ve seen and known (maybe only on TV), makes me feel a little more closely associated with it. That’s why it seems so much more important, that’s why it seems like everyone cares. And why not?

Like life though, sport moves on, and because it is an exaggeration of life, it probably needs to move on faster.

The dead move on faster than the living, and it is them who are living with the loss that we need to support. The ones that feel the loss closest, the ones who may not be able to move on, those are the ones our thoughts should be with.

In truth, if Sean Abbott (the unfortunate bowler) is able to bowl another ball, then he’ll do more for cricket than winning a world cup. For the greatest thing in life and thus in sport, is the ability to move on.