Phillip Hughes dies, aged 25

Just saw Clarke's press conference. A real lump-in-the-throat watch. He's clearly having a tough time coping at the moment.

In our own games this weekend, we are having not a minute's silence, but 63 seconds' silence.

Lovely touch.

Pop music legend Elton John has paid tribute to Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes and expressed support for bowler Sean Abbott during a concert in Germany.

Sir John dedicated his 1974 hit Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me to 25-year-old Hughes, who died in Sydney on Thursday, two days after he was struck on the head by a cricket ball while playing in a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

"I am a big huge sports fan and I love cricket, which you don't know anything about over here," John told the audience in Munich on Thursday.

"Today an Australian batsman called Phil Hughes died of injuries he received while batting in Sydney in Australia, and the man who bowled the ball is a 22-year-old called Sean Abbott and it wasn't his fault, it was a freak accident.

"But, I want to dedicate this song to the memory of Phil Hughes and to the Australian team and all the cricketers in Australia who knew him because, he gave me so much pleasure.

"To Sean Abbott, all I can say is that it's going to take you a long time to get over this but you have a huge future ahead of you so please don't give up. This is for you Phil, wherever you are."

Massive respect for Clarke. Though evident in some scenes, can't imagine how tough it must be at such a time to be a spokesperson too.

Nice touch by Sir Elton, and yup t, Pup has been amazing to front the media when he's completely shattered at the loss of his little bro.

JGK wrote:Pop music legend Elton John has paid tribute to Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes and expressed support for bowler Sean Abbott during a concert in Germany.

Sir John dedicated his 1974 hit Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me to 25-year-old Hughes, who died in Sydney on Thursday, two days after he was struck on the head by a cricket ball while playing in a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

"I am a big huge sports fan and I love cricket, which you don't know anything about over here," John told the audience in Munich on Thursday.

"Today an Australian batsman called Phil Hughes died of injuries he received while batting in Sydney in Australia, and the man who bowled the ball is a 22-year-old called Sean Abbott and it wasn't his fault, it was a freak accident.

"But, I want to dedicate this song to the memory of Phil Hughes and to the Australian team and all the cricketers in Australia who knew him because, he gave me so much pleasure.

"To Sean Abbott, all I can say is that it's going to take you a long time to get over this but you have a huge future ahead of you so please don't give up. This is for you Phil, wherever you are."

probably the best thing Reg has ever done

lardbucket wrote:

JGK wrote:Pop music legend Elton John has paid tribute to Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes and expressed support for bowler Sean Abbott during a concert in Germany.

Sir John dedicated his 1974 hit Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me to 25-year-old Hughes, who died in Sydney on Thursday, two days after he was struck on the head by a cricket ball while playing in a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

"I am a big huge sports fan and I love cricket, which you don't know anything about over here," John told the audience in Munich on Thursday.

"Today an Australian batsman called Phil Hughes died of injuries he received while batting in Sydney in Australia, and the man who bowled the ball is a 22-year-old called Sean Abbott and it wasn't his fault, it was a freak accident.

"But, I want to dedicate this song to the memory of Phil Hughes and to the Australian team and all the cricketers in Australia who knew him because, he gave me so much pleasure.

"To Sean Abbott, all I can say is that it's going to take you a long time to get over this but you have a huge future ahead of you so please don't give up. This is for you Phil, wherever you are."

probably the best thing Reg has ever done

As long as he doesn't rework Candle in the Wind again, he gets two thumbs up from me.

CA amended the scorecard so Hughes is officially 63 no, instead of retired hurt

Nice.

Ashton Agar made 98 yesterday

Israeli umpire dies

"Israel cricket in mourning following freak accident

An umpire and former captain of Israel's national cricket team has died after being hit by a ball during a match in the southern port city of Ashdod.

Hillel Awaskar, who captained Israel at the 1982 and 1997 Associate members' trophy, was struck on the head while standing at the bowler's end. He was treated at the ground before being rushed to hospital, where he died a short time later.

Awaskar's death comes just two days after Australian batsman Phillip Hughes died after being hit by a bouncer in Sydney."

-----------------------------------------

RIP him. I dread to think what the "third" thing will be.

Drove past Bellerive Oval today. Nice tribute of bats, caps & wreaths lined up against the main gates.

Tassie clubs pay their respects:

http://www.crickettas.com.au/news/2014/11/29/tasmanian-cricket-clubs-pay-tribute-to-phillip-hughes

Nath wrote:CA amended the scorecard so Hughes is officially 63 no, instead of retired hurt

Yeah, I thought the original record wasn't right anyway when I saw it as surely a "retirement" only takes effect when the next batsman enters the field of play (or the innings is closed as they are 9 down anyway). That clearly never happened here as play did not continue and only Cooper was originally shown "not out" on the scorecard.

As the batsman at the other end while it happened, who therefore had the closest view of the incident of any of Hughes's team-mates, Tom Cooper has been mainly forgotten - maybe he prefers it that way.

It's been pointed out that Cooper was probably the last person to speak to Hughes. Presumably in a mid-pitch chat at the end of the previous over. I wonder what was said. Michael Clarke wrote in his column today that Hughes used to randomly start talking about cattle when Clarke was keen to know if the ball was swinging etc.

I once read that back in 1959 when Abdul Aziz died on the way to hospital after being hit in the chest while batting, some of the local newspapers recorded him as 'retired dead'. I'm not sure if that is true but both the Cricinfo scorecard & the Cricket Archive scorecard show him as 'retired hurt'.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/engine/match/385932.html

embee wrote:Ashton Agar made 98 yesterday

That's quite remarkable... wonder if he deliberately got himself out 2 runs short of his century?

I guess the supporting effort to Agar's legendary knock was Hughes's last Test innings of note, as he was dropped later that series and didn't play another Test.

beamer wrote:

embee wrote:Ashton Agar made 98 yesterday

That's quite remarkable... wonder if he deliberately got himself out 2 runs short of his century?

I guess the supporting effort to Agar's legendary knock was Hughes's last Test innings of note, as he was dropped later that series and didn't play another Test.

I was thinking about this today. Perhaps when he reached 98, the emotions got the better of him and he completely lost concentration?

Henry wrote:Michael Clarke wrote in his column today that Hughes used to randomly start talking about cattle when Clarke was keen to know if the ball was swinging etc.

That is a wee bit of endearing gold. Quirky, cheeky, amusing. Sounds a grouse bloke.

Cheers Trev.

Skully, here is an extract from Clarke's tribute to Hughes in today's Daily Telegraph-

He also had a knack of making people laugh. I remember the last time we batted together: we would meet in the middle of the pitch and I would be asking him whether the ball was moving in the air or off the deck.

All he could do was talk about his cattle. What that man didn’t know about cows wasn’t worth knowing.

He was a world champion at expressing the smallest facts about Black Angus in particular.

He loved them so much he was trying to convince me to run a herd of them on my own farm.


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/cricket/michael-clarke-phillip-hughes-made-me-a-better-man-ill-miss-you-forever-my-friend/story-fnp050m0-1227139159507



Gideon Haigh said on 'Insiders today', that if anyone in the Australian squad was to pass away, Phil Hughes's passing would hit hardest of all. And so it is proving.

Dello wrote:

lardbucket wrote:

JGK wrote:Pop music legend Elton John has paid tribute to Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes and expressed support for bowler Sean Abbott during a concert in Germany.
...

probably the best thing Reg has ever done.

As long as he doesn't rework Candle in the Wind again, he gets two thumbs up from me.

beamer wrote: Yeah, I thought the original record wasn't right anyway ...

(Sorry, beams .... couldn't resist ...)

Dello: you're ALWAYS sticking both thumbs up.

Lards: Rocket Man was okay. And to my mind at least, only the deeply synthetic, fake-retro plastic pop-flog that is Crocodile Rock is really up on the list of all-time grating hits.

It was a fine gesture by Mr Dwight. I didn't even know he was a cricket fan. And unlike some charity efforts, there was no evident huge kudos shot in it, or obvious creepy publicity/popularity-courting opportunity from it, at a concert in Germany. Okay, so news of it came out worldwide, but you'd have to be a pretty grim cynic, etc. Well done him.

It has taken me a few days to think about this. As I mentioned on this thread or another I knew a bloke who died in a similar fashion to PH.

This fellow was an A Grade country cricketer who when living in Melbourne practiced with my team on a Tuesday and Thursday. This bloke could have played Vic District cricket, but was probably a little short of going on from there. He knew this and was perfectly happy playing with his country team.

He loved cricket too and being a generous person would try to help hone our dismal skills to the barely adequate. I know he also helped lots of juniors at this time as well.

Still sorely missed 30 years on.

There is a funeral this Wednesday and a Test that was due to start on Thursday. I have the latter date wired into my circuits. Of course it will be delayed if not cancelled. But my my body clock still thinks about the state of Clarke's hammy's and whether there will be a replacement...and of course the choice was down to Marsh or Hughes. My out of whack equilibrium still thinks about the merits of either playing.

The little batsman was far from my favorite cricketer, though I was a bit of booster for him in his early days. Nonetheless I went ape when he slaughtered the best bowling attack in the world at Durban. I was sad when he failed against the Poms and experienced being sacked for the first time. Like just about everyone else I respected his obsession (and that is what it was) to come back and overcome the flaws in a technique that was improbable.

Last night I heard Richie Benaud give a brief tribute. Like all involved in the game he was devastated as many others are around the world are too.

My bat sits at the door.

It appears that, on Friday last,  Alastair Cook asked the ECB who they were sending to
Phillip Hughes's funeral on Wednesday.

They hadn't decided at that time, saying (according to the DT) that they would revert.

There is no decision to be made here, IMO.

I feel very strongly that Cook ought to represent English cricket by attending the
funeral himself (and to hell with a piffing meaningless ODI in SL) - rather than sending over
some jobs-worth from the ECB.

It is only right and fitting.