The cricket world was in mourning yesterday following the death of Australia batsman Phillip Hughes, who died in a Sydney hospital two days after being hit in the head by a ball.
A game that is synonymous with the values of fair play and sportsmanship was left heartbroken at the loss of one its favorite sons, a kid from a banana plantation who dared to dream big.
That he died surrounded by his family and friends after being injured playing the game he loved provided little solace to the millions of people who follow cricket.
Photo: AFP
“It’s an understatement to say we’re completely devastated,” Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland told reporters. “The word tragedy gets used too often in sport, but this freak accident is a real-life tragedy.”
Australia’s pain was shared by the cricketing world. Cricket, perhaps more than most other sports, is played by a tight-knit community.
Only a handful of countries play the game professionally and opposing players spend months together, often dining and drinking together after matches.
Rarely has cricket been more united than now, the game’s saddest day.
Overwhelmed by emotion, Australia’s players were in tears as they left St Vincent’s hospital after bidding farewell to their teammate.
The India team, currently on tour in Australia, canceled their two-day practice match that was due to start today. In Dubai, Pakistan and New Zealand aborted the second day of their Test, the players too distraught to take the field.
At Lord’s, the traditional home of cricket, flags were flown at half-mast, a tribute that was replicated at other stadiums around the world.
“For a young life to be cut short playing our national game seems a shocking aberration,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. “He was loved, admired and respected by his teammates and by legions of cricket fans.”
The news of Hughes’ death came like a bolt from the blue. The 25-year-old had been in an induced coma for two days after being struck by a bouncer from Sean Abbott at the Sydney Cricket Ground in a domestic encounter.
He had needed cardiopulmonary and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before undergoing surgery to reduce the pressure on his brain.
The ball hit him on the side of his neck, compressing his vertebral artery and causing it to split, forcing blood into the brain area.
Doctors removed parts of his skull during the operation, but the damage was too severe and he never regained consciousness.
“This was a freakish accident because it was an injury to the neck that caused [a] hemorrhage in the brain,” Cricket Australia doctor Peter Brukner said. “The condition is incredibly rare.”
The outpouring of grief that followed the news of the player’s death was elevated in part by his enormous popularity.
Raised on a farm, Hughes was a throwback to cricket’s golden era, self-taught through hours of monotonous practice in his backyard.
He made his first-class debut at 18 and was picked for Australia at just 20, scoring twin centuries in his second Test match against South Africa.
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