'I'm going to kill you': Phillip Hughes inquest told of alleged Doug Bollinger sledge

Chris Barrett

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The coronial inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes has heard claims that NSW fast bowler Doug Bollinger uttered the sledge "I'm going to kill you" in the lead-up to the blow that struck the former Test batsman in a Sheffield Shield match at the SCG two years ago.

On the first day of the hearing before State Coroner Michael Barnes in Sydney, the nature of play and bowling tactics on that fateful afternoon were examined, with former Australian wicketkeeper and vice-captain Brad Haddin the first player called to give evidence on Monday.

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Day 1 of the Phil Hughes inquest

The first day of the inquest into the death of cricketer Phil Hughes.

Hughes, batting for South Australia against NSW, was hit on the left side of his neck by a ball bowled by Blues bowler Sean Abbott on November 25, 2014. He collapsed almost immediately and died in hospital two days later.

The counsel assisting the coroner, Kristina Stern, SC, noted in her opening statement that the inquest was not being held to apportion blame over Hughes's death but said it would examine whether the "nature of the play" in any way contributed to the incident and whether lessons could be learnt from the incident.

Hughes' family - father Greg, mother Virginia, brother Jason and sister Megan - were in court at the Downing Centre on Monday - and their legal representative, Greg Melick SC, told the inquest the family had concerns about the number of short balls bowled to Hughes on the afternoon and about sledging in the lead-up to the blow. He said the family believed Hughes had been targeted in an "ungentlemanly way".

The inquest's first witness, Detective Senior Constable Jay Tonkin, was asked by Melick during cross-examination whether after meeting with the family in February 2015 he had been made aware of claims that Bollinger said the words "I'm going to kill you" in the general direction of Hughes and Tom Cooper, who was batting with Hughes when he was struck.

"Jason (Hughes' brother) informed me that he'd been told that," Tonkin said.

The court was told that Jason Hughes learnt of the alleged comments two days after the incident.

Phillip Hughes walks out to bat in a Test at the SCG in 2010. Photo: Ryan Pierse

Bollinger denied the sledge. "I know in my heart I didn't say that," Bollinger told the inquest. "I don't remember saying anything like that to anyone. I know I didn't sledge Phil."

In written statements provided to the inquest, NSW players including Bollinger, Haddin and David Warner said they had no recollection of any comments or backchat to Hughes that afternoon.

NSW bowler Doug Bollinger. Photo: Getty Images

Haddin, under cross examination by Melick, a former Cricket Australia special investigator, said on Monday when asked about the alleged remark by Bollinger: "I didn't hear anything.

Earlier, Haddin said: "The game was played in a good spirit. It was just a normal game of cricket. it just happened to be that there was two ex-NSW players out there. There was nothing different in the game."

The retired Test keeper, who was NSW captain in the match, also said there had been no plan to bowl short to Hughes and Cooper in an attempt to break their partnership that afternoon.

Hughes had moved to 63 when he was hit.

Haddin said the only tactics that had been discussed were changing the field placements.

"I had a discussion (at lunch) with Trevor Bayliss, the coach of NSW at the time. It was a pretty broad discussion," Haddin said.

"Basically we were talking about needing to slow the scoreboard down. At the time South Australia were scoring pretty freely so the tactic was just to put the fielders out and cut off the boundary options to South Australia.

"I was moving the field. I didn't have any discussions with the bowlers about what I wanted them to do. From a captain's point of view I just wanted to cut the boundaries down."

In his statement, Warner said "the team had developed a plan of how to get Phil out. Basically it was to bowl at or over leg stump and get Phil moving backwards instead of forwards."

However, Haddin said "there was no plan to do that".

"One of the bowlers (used) was a spin bowler", Haddin said. "If I wanted them playing off the back foot, I would have used different bowlers.

"There was no discussion with anyone at NSW about bowling a higher number of short balls."

A long-time state and Australian teammate of Hughes's, Haddin said the incident had been terrible to witness.

"It was like something I've never, ever witnessed before in my life when he fell down," he said.

"It was the noise that he let out, the groan, and the way that he fell straight down motionless without trying to break his fall."

Bruce Hodgkinson, QC for Cricket Australia, Cricket NSW and the players, asked that footage of the incident not be shown to players who are called to give evidence unless absolutely necessary.

Bollinger was due to be called to the witness stand on Monday afternoon while Warner was also due to appear by video link from South Africa, where he is touring with the Australian one-day team.