By Mike Lorigan and Melissa Polimeni, ABC
The talented young cricketer was struck in the neck with a ball during a training session. Photo: ABC / Ferntree Cricket Club
Sitting on the boundary at his youngest son's cricket match, Jace Austin admits his relationship with the sport has changed.
"To say I watch it the same? No, definitely not," Jace said.
In late October, his eldest son, Ben, died after an accident at cricket training in Melbourne's east.
The 17-year-old was batting in the practice nets with his teammates at the Wally Tew Reserve in Ferntree Gully, when he was struck in the neck with a cricket ball.
Ben was rushed to hospital where he was put on life support but died two days later on 30 October.
"When it first happened, I never wanted to see a game of cricket or go to a cricket net ever again, ever," Jace told the ABC's 7.30 in an exclusive interview.
Jace Austin watches a cricket match where his youngest son is playing. Photo: ABC
"But then, the next morning, I woke up, whether it was through Benny or through just a feeling I got, I said, 'no, I have to … that's not fair'. It had nothing to do with the game. Benny loved it that much."
A medical examiner's report, seen by 7.30, found Ben died from an intracranial haemorrhage caused by a traumatic injury to the left side of his neck.
The fatal ball was thrown by one of Ben's teammates using a 'cricket thrower' also known as a 'side-arm' or 'wanger', a training tool used in cricket clubs across the country to throw practice balls to batters.
"Cricket wasn't at fault here … it was just a pure accident. It really was." Jace said.
'I knew straight away'
Bravely recalling the afternoon his family's life was shattered, Jace said he knew when he arrived at the nets that his son's life was over.
"My brother-in-law, Dave rang me, [who is] also my closest friend and said, 'mate, Ben's been hit, you have to get there''. I said, 'oh mate, I'm three minutes away'."
"So I just get out and I'm just yelling, 'can someone tell me what's going on?' And I could just feel the looks on all the players and that.
"I just walked around the ambulance to the nets and I sort of got about just before the bowling mark at the end of the (nets), and I could just see him, they're working on him.
"I knew straight away that he wasn't there. I knew he'd gone straight away.
"I just kept saying, 'I wonder what happened, what's happened, what's happened'?
"Then we got told he had his heartbeat … they kept saying he had his heartbeat, which is honestly magnificent they got that because we got to spend three nights with him."
Tracey and Jace Austin say no one is to blame for their son's death. Photo: ABC
Ben was transported to the Monash Children's Hospital in Melbourne and kept alive for two days as his mother Tracey clung to hope.
"I just kept on thinking as a mum does, there's hope, there's hope, there's hope," Tracey Austin told 7.30.
Jace Austin said: "The ICU lady was beautiful and she just said, 'there's nothing we can do for him. There's nothing, even to operate on him would be just so unfair because he's brain dead. He's gone'."
Tracey and Jace are grateful for the time they were able to spend with Ben at his bedside.
"I thought they were so special just to sit there and just to stroke his hair and play his favourite songs, just to be with him," Tracey said.
"It was just beautiful just to have that chance just to be with him and it was very special."
Tracey Austin visits Ben's bedroom every morning to look at images of him. Photo: ABC
Ben was a 'miracle baby'
At their family home in Mulgrave, every morning when Tracey wakes up she goes straight to Ben's room.
"I say good morning, give him a kiss, go and put up the blinds, turn his lights on … sometimes I'll sit down and just reflect and look at the pictures, look at his trophies," Tracey said.
Ben's young life fills the space, his image is on his bedspread, there are photographs of him on the walls and his achievements are on show.
"I can feel him in this room. I can feel his presence, just his smile and in the photos, it's like he's looking at me, those big brown eyes."
When Ben was born on the 10th of October 2008, his parents called him their miracle baby.
"I was in a car accident in 1992 and in a coma and got pins in my neck," Tracey recalled.
"I was pretty broken and the doctors said that I wouldn't be able to have a child and we had fertility [treatment] and we had a miscarriage and then we had Ben.
"He made the paper when he was born because he was our miracle baby. He proved the doctors wrong and made it."
Ben was a sports-mad 17-year-old when he passed away.
He played cricket for three different teams, aussie rules football for Waverley Park Hawks and was a promising boundary umpire, with a love of running.
"He was kind of shy and quiet growing up, but once he started playing his sport, he just had a real passion and took leadership and always strived for the best," Tracey told 7.30.
A 'loved, cheeky boy'
His mates Cooper Wood and Hudson Reid, who spoke at his funeral at Junction Oval in St Kilda in November, described Ben's good-natured humour.
"He'd make you laugh, he could cheer you on, he could make you be a better person," Hudson said.
Cooper told 7.30 that Ben's personality always shone through.
"The one thing I think everyone who would've known Ben was just his character," he recalled.
Cooper Wood and Hudson Reid remember Ben Austin's good-natured humour. Photo: ABC
"He was a very bit quiet at first, but obviously once you got to know him he was out, he was quite loud, he was a cheeky boy.
"He captained a lot of his teams, he did win a premiership, so he was very smart in everything he did."
His mother Tracey told 7.30 that Ben had plans to become a PE teacher after he finished high school.
"He'd just last year done work experience at the primary school and they all loved him down there," she said.
The Austins have found speaking about their son has helped them process their profound grief.
"I could talk about him all day," Tracey said.
"It keeps him alive. Keeps him alive in my heart.
"He was amazing. He was my boy, he was kind, he was caring, he had time for everyone. If you were three or if you were 80, he'd stop and he'd listen and he was just so loved.
"We need to talk about him and we sit down at the table at night and the first thing, I'd like someone to say, is something about him, just a memory, and then we will include everybody else, but I just want him to be acknowledged and know he was loved."
Jace Austin and his wife have made sure to comfort the other boy involved in their son's death, who is a family friend. Photo: ABC
Supporting the family friend who threw the ball
In the days and weeks after their son's death, Jace and Tracey have supported Ben's 15-year-old teammate, who threw the fatal ball.
"We check in with him regularly just to see how he's going. And he seems to be going okay," Tracey told 7.30.
Jace said the teenager's father was a friend and his grandfather coached Jace when when he was younger.
"We've got more than just a kid who was bowling at the nets to Benny. We've got a connection with their family that goes back to when I was 12-13," Jace said.
"We got him to go to the hospital … he didn't want to come.
"I said, 'no, mate, you've got to come'. And we just hugged him and said, it wasn't your fault.
"We've given him Benny's bat to use. We've given him Benny's shirt and I've even said he's going to be my cricket son now."
"I just know Benny, if he could talk to and he could get the phone and ring me, he'd make clear that it was definitely not anyone's fault. It was just a freak accident."
Ben's death not only rocked those closest to him, it struck the cricket world … which wrapped its arms around the Austins and Ben's mates.
For many in cricket it took them back to 2014, when former Australia Test opener Phillip Hughes, was fatally struck by a bouncer during a state cricket game between NSW and South Australia.
A tribute to Ben Austin on the Junction Oval scoreboard during his funeral on 20 November, 2025. Photo: ABC
No calls for change in safety standards
Ben was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident which didn't have a neck guard.
Ben's parents say a doctor at Monash Children's told them a helmet neck guard was no guarantee of preventing their son's death.
"In her opinion, she said to me because of the pace and how it hit him, flush, it has hit spot on, it probably would've just not done anything," Jace said.
His mate Cooper Wood also said he believed what happened to Ben was a tragic and unlucky incident.
"He wasn't wearing a neck guard, but in my opinion the neck guard wouldn't have helped," Cooper told 7.30.
"It was in just the wrong spot I guess - he got hit and it's not that you've got to make net guards mandatory again. Nine out of 10 times he would hit that ball, which is that one-off chance. So I don't think anything really needs to be changed."
Hudson Reid agreed.
"No one is to blame, just a tragic incident. It wasn't the boy's fault, it wasn't the thing that was being used, the side, it was just luck, it was just unlucky," he said.
In Australia, neck guards are mandatory for batters facing pace bowling in Cricket Australia sanctioned elite competitions; they are not mandatory in junior competitions or training.
When asked if she still thinks cricket is a safe sport after what happened to her son, Tracey Austin said: "I can't see anything wrong with it. It was just that one in a million thing that happened to us, happened to our boy."
Lee Thompson, president of Ferntree Cricket Club, says Ben Austin's death "was a terrible accident". Photo: ABC
Lee Thompson, the president of Ferntree Cricket Club, told 7.30 "our view is it was a terrible accident, an incredibly terrible accident."
"It's ultimately for the authorities and the people like that to look at what happened and see if anything good can come out of it from a safety perspective.
"For us, our most important thing as a club is it's getting around each and every one of us and making sure everyone's OK."
Ben's initials and his first-grade cap number, 512, are front and centre on the club's jerseys and on the grass at the Wally Tew Oval.
This banner adorns the ground where Ben Austin played his cricket. Photo: ABC
His face adorns the practice nets where he last put on his pads and played cricket.
His family and community are now discussing ways to help others who have experienced sudden adolescent loss.
"Every day we come to this beautiful cricket reserve we think of Ben and every day we play a game of cricket, we think of Ben. The whole club does that. I can't see that ever changing to be honest," Thompson said.
- ABC
