Our team will never be the same again
As his nation mourns, Australia captain Michael Clarke pays an emotional tribute to Phillip Hughes
THE first Test between Australia and India was postponed yesterday as an emotional Michael Clarke spoke about the death of his friend and teammate Phillip Hughes. The match had been scheduled to start at the Gabba on Thursday, but it was announced that Hughes’s funeral will take place the day before in Macksville, the small coastal town halfway between Sydney and Brisbane where he was born. He would have been 26 today.
As the world of cricket continued to mourn the loss of one Australia’s most well-loved players, Hughes’s No 64 shirt – the one he wore in his 25 one-day internationals – was officially retired. A decision was yet to be made on the starting date of the Test series.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said: ‘ These are extraordinary circumstances and we simply couldn’t or wouldn’t expect our players to be emotionally ready to start a Test match the day after saying farewell to one of their teammates.
‘Their welfare is our absolute priority. They are grieving, and to expect that they could play a high-pressured, fiveday Test match the following day is out of the question.’
With the second Test due to begin in Adelaide on December 12, followed by a nine-day gap before the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, the most likely outcome is that the first two games will be pushed back to allow Australia’s cricketers more time to come to terms with their loss.
According to Mark Waugh, one of Australia’s selectors, Hughes would have resumed his Test career in Brisbane. But yesterday, as a distraught Clarke spoke to the media, the minutiae of international cricket’s fixture list felt like a cruel irrelevance.
Only four days after Hughes was struck on the neck by a bouncer during a domestic game in Sydney, and only two days after he was pronounced dead as a result of a catastrophic brain haemorrhage, the Australian captain was called upon to deliver the most painful press conference of his career. It made for difficult viewing.
Choking back the tears, Clarke said: ‘Words can not express the loss we all feel as a team right now. To Greg, Virginia [Hughes’s parents], Jason and Megan [his siblings], we share the deep pain that you’re feeling.
‘Last night, I asked Cricket Australia if Hughesy’s Australian oneday international shirt number, 64, could be retired, to which they agreed. That means so much.
‘His legacy of trying to improve each and every day will drive us for the rest of our lives. Our dressing room will never be the same, we loved him and always will.
‘Apart from when he was home on the farm with his beloved cattle, Hughesy was at his happiest playing cricket for his country with his mates. Things were always put into perspective when Hughesy said: “Where else would you rather be, boys, than playing cricket for your country?”
‘We’re going to miss that cheeky grin and that twinkle in his eye. He epitomised what that Baggy Green is about and what it meant to us all.
‘The world lost one of its great blokes this week and we are all the poorer for it. Our promise to Hughesy’s family is that we will do everything we can to honour his memory.’
Clarke has received praise from many quarters for the dignity and courage he has shown since Hughes was felled at the SCG, and yesterday the former Australia coach Mickey Arthur, who worked closely with both batsmen, voiced his thoughts.
‘It’s one thing a captain would never think he’d have to do,’ he said. ‘A captain of international cricket has got so much responsibility, but Michael’s leadership has extended off the field this week and he seems to have been a real rock around that team.
‘They were always close, always together, Phil and Michael. Phil looked up to Michael and tried to prepare and go about his business in the same way.
‘There was always the little wolf pack, we used to laugh and say. The wolf pack was [David] Warner, Hughes and [Matthew] Wade – they were always Pup’s shadow, you know?’
Meanwhile, Sutherland said he had spoken with Greg Hughes about whether his son would have wanted the Brisbane Test to go ahead.
‘I can remember just in the last few hours conversations with Phillip’s father telling me just how much he and the family love cricket, and Phillip loved cricket more than anyone,’ said Sutherland. ‘He would want nothing more than for the game to continue.’
The CA chief executive also thanked the Indian board for their willingness to push back the date of the Brisbane Test. He said: ‘We appreciate the incredible understanding and support of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It has been nothing short of outstanding during this time.’