A decade on, Hookes' passing a game-changer David Hookes at Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast in October 2003. Photo: Andy Zakeli Close friends of David Hookes who were with him on the night he died a decade ago say they still struggle to accept what happened, both on that night and in the resulting Supreme Court trial. Former Test cricketer Hookes was coach of Victoria's cricket team when he died on January 19, 2004, after a verbal dispute with security staff at a St Kilda hotel escalated. The 48-year-old suffered head injuries when, after being punched by one of the hotel bouncers, he fell backwards onto the road. He never recovered, dying in hospital the following day. The bouncer charged with manslaughter over the incident, Zdravko Micevic, was acquitted at a September 2005 trial. He gave evidence that Hookes, who was also a prominent broadcaster, was argumentative and threatened to publicly criticise hotel staff. After the not-guilty verdict was delivered after five days' deliberation, Micevic expressed his regret to Hookes' family over the outcome of the incident. Greg Shipperd and Shaun Graf, who are key figures in Victorian cricket, each said they kept a copy of the trial transcript and periodically refer back to it. I go back to the night in question and still shake my head how someone could get off for what happened that night. It put into question my view on justice," said Graf, a Cricket Victoria executive who gave evidence at the trial. Victoria's then captain Darren Berry is now coach of South Australia, where his support staff includes two others who were at the Beaconsfield Hotel on the night of the incident: physiotherapist Jonathon Porter and bowling coach Rob Cassell. Berry said the incident was so traumatic for all three of them that "while I've been with them for 2½ years, I reckon we've spoken about it once . . . It was just an unnecessary incident and, to this day, my faith in our legal system [has been severely undermined]. What happened didn't need to happen. Shipperd, who was Hookes' deputy and elevated to head coach after his death, said the circumstances of the incident were "unpleasant - and the follow-up to that just as. The judicial process shook me, and I reckon a lot of other people, quite significantly. The coach said he had taken a keen interest in the strong public reaction to the recent death of Sydney teenager Daniel Christie, after a New Year's Eve altercation characterised as having featured a "coward's punch." "I'm still to see a government that's strong enough in dealing with it, although they talk it up as if they are," Shipperd said. Australia coach Darren Lehmann counted Hookes as a confidant whose influence on him, both on field and off, was "high." He said the altercation that led to Hookes' death was "the worst action, but for me personally it's been a real life changer. Life became more important than the game of cricket. The biggest lesson I learned was probably him dying, that you've got to make every post a winner and you can't harp on things you can't control. You've got to make sure you're always enjoying yourself, enjoying life, and being around family and friends as much as possible.