The Curtain review: what Cricket Australia's independent review found.

The name

The review is the Curtain review, named after its reviewer, David Curtain QC. Cricket Australia's announcements of 2015 and 2016 use that name.

Announcement and terms (14 May 2015)

Cricket Australia announced the independent review on 14 May 2015, with the support of the Hughes family. It named Melbourne barrister David Curtain QC as reviewer, describing him as a former chairman of the Victorian Bar Council and president of the Australian Bar Association. CA's chief executive said the review was not designed to apportion blame.

CA's terms of reference covered:

• the causes and circumstances of Hughes's injury and death;
• preventing head and heart injuries;
• making protective equipment mandatory, the provision of helmets and their certification standards;
• medical screening, and concussion and head trauma policy;
• medical cover for players, on-field staff and match officials.

The terms left out the Laws of Cricket and playing regulations, except where they related to protective equipment or to head and heart injuries.

Release and findings (11 May 2016)

The review was released on 11 May 2016. As reported by cricket.com.au and the news agencies, it found:

• that the medical attention Hughes received played no part in his death;
• that a newer helmet would probably not have given extra protection against the blow, because the protection at the rear of the neck was no different (AFP and Reuters).

Recommendations

• Batters. First-class batters should wear helmets meeting the highest British standard when facing fast or medium-pace bowling, in the nets and in matches.
• Fielders and wicketkeepers. Helmets for close-in fielders other than slips, and head and eye protection for wicketkeepers standing up to the stumps.
• Neck guards. The reviewer said these should be required as part of the helmet only once they were shown to be safe and effective, finding limited scientific evidence at the time.
• Umpires and defibrillators. AFP reported that the review recommended considering protective headwear for umpires and having a defibrillator available at all first-class matches. These two points come from a single news agency report and are unconfirmed.

What it said on concussion substitutes: two accounts

The reports disagree. cricket.com.au reported that Curtain made no recommendation on concussion substitutes, because the rules of the game were outside his terms of reference. AFP reported that the review said substitutes could be considered. Both accounts agree that he described the question as complex, or as needing ongoing consideration. The review's full text was not available to us, so we cannot settle which reading is closer.

Cricket Australia's response

CA's chief executive endorsed the recommendations, said some were already in place, and asked the ICC to consider concussion substitutes; the ICC Cricket Committee was due to discuss them on 31 May 2016. Reuters reported that CA's resulting rules made helmets to the highest British standard compulsory, in games and practice, for batters facing fast and medium pace and for wicketkeepers and close fielders in first-class matches.

Later that year, on 21 October 2016, cricket.com.au reported that concussion substitutes had been introduced in Australian domestic cricket following the Curtain report, for men's and women's domestic one-day matches, the BBL, the WBBL and other CA matches. The Sheffield Shield was excluded, because the ICC had at that time rejected substitutes for first-class cricket. The ICC approved them for international and first-class cricket from 1 August 2019, as set out on concussion and replacements.

How the review sits beside the inquest

The review came before the coroner's inquest, which sat in October 2016 and delivered findings on 4 November 2016. The coroner recorded several changes that line up with the review's subjects. From October 2015, Cricket Australia had required players representing it, or a state or territory in its competitions, to wear helmets complying with BS 7928:2013, and the 2016-17 Sheffield Shield playing conditions required them for batters facing fast or medium pace. The coroner also recorded that, in 2016, CA recommended neck protectors but had not made them mandatory, citing insufficient evidence, which matches the reviewer's caution. He recommended that CA keep working towards a neck protector that could be mandated, at least in first-class matches.

The coroner's findings are on Phillip Hughes and the inquest, and the later development of helmet and neck-guard rules is on helmet rules: the history.