Almost four months on and David Warner still can’t reconcile why Phillip Hughes lost his life playing cricket.
One of the most explosive run-scorers in Australia’s Test-match history and the self-confessed sledging leader of the national team, Warner has confirmed his status as the world’s premier opener since Hughes died on November 27 last year.
But the hard-nosed hero and millionaire graduate of South Sydney’s housing commission blocks still tears up recalling the fateful summer day at the SCG when Hughes, one of Warner’s closest friends and former NSW and Test teammate, was fatally struck in the head by a bouncer.
Playing against Hughes in the Sheffield Shield that afternoon, Warner was first to his mate’s aid and on the medicab as the lifeless opener was taken from the field and then rushed to hospital.
He prayed for a miracle that never came, with Hughes’ life support machine turned off two days later.
“When I got home that day after it happened, I was standing in the shower and I was sort of facing my wall in the shower with my hands in my head going ‘Why?’,” Warner told 60 Minutes.
“It hurts. The thought of coming off that day holding his hand, it hurts every day when I think about it.
“It’s hard to talk about it now … Why does this happen? Why did this happen in the game of cricket?”
Despite his grieving, Warner stoically struck twin centuries, knocks of 145 and 102, in the first Test against India in Adelaide in Australia’s first match after Hughes’ tragic death.
He kissed the pitch where Hughes was felled when he reached 63 not out in his first innings at the SCG after Hughes died before going on to make 101 that dig too – in the fourth Test in January.
That emotional ton followed his six Test centuries in a spectacular 2014 revival after Warner thought he may have committed cricket suicide with his self-destructive off-field behaviour.
A Twitter tirade bagging two of Australia’s most respected cricket writers preceded a brain snap when Warner punched English batsman Joe Root before the Ashes in 2013.
Looking back, Warner said he was “like a volcano ready to erupt” at that time in his career.
But he also felt untouchable after bursting onto the international scene as the first Australian in more than a century picked for national duty without any previous experience in first-class cricket.
“I’m the first person to say I’m no saint or angel,” Warner said.
“You’ve sort of just made the big time, you sort of get carried away with yourself and you sort of almost think you’re invincible.”
But after being hauled over the coals by Cricket Australia, Warner realised his career was in the balance.
“I had doubts in myself to say: ‘Do you deserve another opportunity to go out and represent Australia?'” he said.
“And it was really, really tough.”
The 28-year-old’s response has been nothing short of remarkable.
Warner has scored an extraordinary nine centuries at an average of 56.66 since his pre-Ashes punch-up in England, including six alone during a stellar 2014.
Warner’s parter Candice Falzon, who has overcome her own demons in a successful surf lifesaving career, says Warner has “grown up” immensely.
She describes her man as a cricket “warrior” but a “real softie” off the field, especially since the birth of their daughter Ivy Mae last year.
“In the last 18 months, what he’s done has been truly inspirational,” Falzon said.
The two plan to marry later this year.
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