‘Like Hughes, my dad died playing cricket’
IRISH cricketer John Mooney has told of how the death of an Australian player last week in a freak accident has reignited his memories of losing his own father during a cricket match when he was just a boy.
Batsman Phillip Hughes, 25, died last week just two days after he was struck in the neck by a ball during a match in Sydney.
And yesterday Dublin cricket player John Mooney said the tragedy had brought back his own darkest childhood memories. The 32year-old’s father died suddenly two decades ago while playing cricket.
In a moving message posted on his Facebook page, Mooney, who has spoken openly about his battle with depression, wrote: ‘Life has a way of putting things in perspective for you and in the last few days the cricket world has been turned upside down due to the tragic death of one of the game’s top batsman in Australia, Phil Hughes. Hit on the head with a cricket ball at 80+mph.
‘My dad also died playing cricket and the feelings that this has brought back to me are so raw and mixed I don’t know what to think,’ he added. ‘For 20-odd years I’ve tried to tell myself, “Ah, Dad died doing something he loved.” That might be true but it’s not fair and what happened to Phil is just not fair.
‘My mood at some stage today will be low and tomorrow I will go through the same thing but I will hopefully still be here with a great family, with friends, with a job, with a future, a future which has been taken so tragically away from Phil.’
Despite being part of the squad that beat New Zealand at the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai yesterday, Mooney admitted that since leaving Ireland to go on tour he has had suicidal thoughts.
It is the second time this year he has contemplated suicide while touring with the squad. In February he was unable to complete Ireland’s tour of the Caribbean and sought treatment.
This weekend the father of two told friends and fans on Facebook that he has been going to bed early to keep suicidal thoughts at bay.