So now they want to stop them playing

cricket with cricket balls...well using cricket balls at the practice nets.
I am really beginning to wonder at the "nanny state" we live in. One of the local councils is seriously suggesting that cricket balls should no longer be used at the practice nets.
Now hang on. These are the practice nets for cricket. They are designed for the very purpose of having your mate bowl the ball so that you can try and hit it. If you are a kid you aren't always going to hit the ball. If you do hit the ball then the chances of you hitting it far enough and hard enough to kill the soccer players on the oval...well, that's unlikely.
I actually think you could do more harm playing soccer. I mean, let's face it, you hit the ball with your head don't you? That's crazy. It's dangerous. Middle Cat would not allow her two kittens to play soccer for that very reason. Our GP says it is a "mad" game.
I know. People love it. You won't stop people from playing it. I wouldn't even bother to try.
So, why try and stop people playing cricket with cricket balls?
Somebody else might get hit with the cricket ball.
I go past one of the local ovals on quite a regular basis. There is  usually someone there after school or at weekends or in the school holidays. Sometimes they will be using the nets.
A cricket ball has never come anywhere near me although I suppose it could. On other occasions I have stopped pedalling and picked up a ball of one sort or another and thrown it back over a fence or to a child not allowed out onto the road. So far I have not been hit by one but I recognise it could happen. 
Surely all this is part of the risk you take if you happen to be involved in an activity - even if it is just pedalling along the road.
When I was a kitten kids played cricket in the streets. I admit the traffic was rather less, especially where we lived. The kids avoided the cars. They didn't always avoid damaging windows and other objects. They usually paid for the damage they caused. It was considered part of life. 
That changed. Kids went to the nets because it was "safer". Now most of them don't even go to the nets unless there is a "responsible adult" with them. 
Will it soon be that they won't even be allowed to go the nets with a cricket ball? Or, worse, not be allowed to go at all.
And we wonder why children are less active than they used to be. They might get hurt?
Even I was occasionally hauled in to help field at on-street cricket games. "Stand there Cat and throw the ball back..."
And it was a proper, hard, red cricket ball that gave a satisfying thunk against the bat.