Tribute: Gone too soon, Phillip Hughes

Phillip Hughes has tragically lost his life aged just 25

Numbed. Shocked. Silenced.

For a girl of 20, who prides herself in being called a cricket fan, the gentleman’s game has always been associated with unparalleled joy, along with immense frustrations. The game between the 22 yards defined aggression and courage, as the two teams looked to emerge on top. While some defied all odds and came out triumphant, others “succumbed” to “lethal” tactics.

“Succumbed”and “lethal” - words which will never be used in the same light again, after the world witnessed the untimely, unfortunate death of Australia’s 25-year-old Phillip Joel Hughes, two days after being hit by a rising bouncer, while playing for South Australia in a Sheffield Shield match on Tuesday.

Emerging from a banana farm in Macksville where Hughes spent his childhood years, to the fateful day when in a bid to return to the national team, he was felled by a rising Sean Abbott delivery, never to regain consciousness again, life has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride for him.

Indeed someone who rushed the retirement of Matthew Hayden needs to be a special kind of cricketer, and two consecutive hundreds in his second Test match at Durban in 2009 against the feared bowling pair of Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn is proof of that. It brought him into the limelight, earning him praises from none other than legends Allan Border and Steve Waugh. The duo soon became his biggest supporters, chiding the Australian selectors for “treating him badly and unjustly”.

From mastering the art of facing Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to losing his life to a similar delivery, life indeed turns out full circle in the end.

Laying in his hospital bed, with well wishes and prayers pouring in from all over the world, the youngster, who was just 3 days short of his 26th birthday, was expected to bounce back, just as he has done on the field, in the game he loved so much. That was, sadly, not to be.

He never played more than 3 consecutive home Tests for Australia, yet he kept scoring hundreds at the first-class level, and always fought his way through. He was undeterred when the world around him questioned his unorthodox skills, but with a cheeky smile he silenced them all.

In an age when the Australian cricket team was known for their on-field sledging and aggression, Hughes went about playing 52 international games in a manner unlike the rest. His bat would do the talking, and this is how he liked it.

With condolences pouring in from every nook and corner of the world, with every opposition from every country he played against tweeting about the sudden loss, Hughesy’s death only reinforces how cricket will forever be more about the rivalry displayed on field. In moments of grief, cricket manages to transcend all national and geographical boundaries and today, the cricketing fraternity in unison mourns the loss of “Cap No. 408”.

As his white flannels soon became a shroud, the images of a weeping Abbott touched hearts. The guilt would have scarred him for life but he was only doing what he knew best - looking to demoralise the batsman, hoping to take his wicket. The 22-year-old faces a daunting task getting back on the field, as the world rallies around him, in support.

Hughes sacrificed himself for something he loved most, and although he did not affect my life like a Virat Kohli or a MS Dhoni did, his loss, and the manner in which it happened, has undoubtedly left a jarring stain on all minds. Cricket, the game I have come to love more than anything else, could end up being so cruel, so tragic.

But such is life. Cruel. Unjust. Out of control.

With highest scores of 138*, 87*, 243*, 202* in different formats over the years including an innings of 63* the last time he batted, his scorecard reads not out forever, and his legacy is sure to live on.

RIP little champ. You will be missed.

For eternity the spirit of Cap No. 408 #RIPPhilHughes

— Adam Gilchrist (@gilly381) November 27, 2014