Neck protectors: optional for the ICC, compulsory for some boards.

In the Laws: part of the helmet

The Laws of Cricket do not treat a neck guard as a separate item. Appendix A.2.3 of the 2017 Code 4th Edition (2026) defines a protective helmet as headwear of hard material designed to protect the head, neck and/or face, and says that for the purposes of the Laws it includes faceguards, grilles and neck guards. The rules on wearing one come from the bodies below.

In the standard: BS 7928:2013+A1:2019

BSI lists BS 7928:2013+A1:2019 as the current British standard for cricket head protectors, published on 30 June 2019, and its summary says it covers head and neck protectors. The ICC says the 2019 update added specifications for neck protectors, tested with a coverage test and an impact-attenuation drop test aimed at injuries to the base of the back of the head and the upper neck. Standards resellers, seen only in search-result summaries, describe the 2019 revision as adding a facial projectile test and junior ball sizes instead; BSI's own page describes both tests without saying which edition introduced them. The ICC's account is the one from a governing body, and the resellers' version is unconfirmed. How the standard and its editions are named by each body is on helmet standards.

The rules, body by body

So, in the documents current in October 2026, a neck protector is optional in ICC international cricket but compulsory for batters against fast or medium pace in Cricket Australia's sanctioned competitions and for NZC's international and Major Association domestic players. The ECB's 2022 rule built it into the definition of the head protector its covered players had to wear; that is the 2022 text, and the ECB's later regulations are not used on this site. The ECB's 2025 recreational regulations are read from a copy reproduced in a Cornwall Cricket handbook.

Altering a neck protector

NZC's 2024-25 policy and the ECB's 2022 regulations both say headgear altered against the maker's instructions, or in a way that reduces protection, is not compliant, and both give altering the neck protector or its attachment as an example. This site does not describe fitting or adjusting any guard.

The ECB and hit wicket

ESPNcricinfo reported on 31 March 2021 that from the 2021 season the ECB's playing conditions for all its competitions stopped a dislodged helmet or neck guard from causing a hit-wicket dismissal. The ECB gave player safety and encouraging the use of stem guards as its reasons.

That was a playing condition. The Laws themselves contain a similar exclusion: under Law 29.2.1.4 of the 2017 Code 4th Edition (2026), the detached equipment that can break the wicket does not include the striker's protective helmet or any part of it as defined in Appendix A.2.3, which counts neck guards as part of the helmet. The 3rd Edition (2022) has the same wording.

What the 2016 reviews found

Both reviews that followed the death of Phillip Hughes addressed neck protection. Hughes died on 27 November 2014, two days after being struck by a ball while batting in a first-class match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The NSW State Coroner, Magistrate Michael Barnes, delivered his findings on 4 November 2016. He found that Hughes was hit on an area of the left side of his neck that his helmet did not protect, that there was no suggestion the helmet had malfunctioned, and that even the most modern equipment then available would not have protected the area where the blow landed.

The coroner recorded that in 2016 Cricket Australia recommended neck protectors but had not made them mandatory, because there was then insufficient evidence that they were effective. His second recommendation was that Cricket Australia keep working with equipment developers, players' associations and testers towards a neck protector that could be mandated, at least in all first-class matches. Expert evidence summarised in his findings was that better helmet design may have only a limited role in preventing this kind of injury, because a helmet reduces force on the head but is less able to stop the head moving relative to the neck.

Cricket Australia's independent review by David Curtain QC, released on 11 May 2016, said neck guards should be required as part of the helmet only once shown to be safe and effective, finding limited scientific evidence at the time, according to cricket.com.au's report of the review.

Cricket Australia's 2023-24 requirement came after both. The coroner's findings and the Curtain review are covered on Phillip Hughes and the inquest and the Curtain review.