This week will mark one of the most difficult weeks the Australian cricketing community has had to endure in the history of the sport, and there will be no winners.
The coronial inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes has picked at a scar that has failed to heal. The scar will probably never heal. That is what happens when a young man is tragically cut down in his prime. The only week more difficult perhaps, was the actual week Hughes died.
He was struck by a bouncer causing a haemorrhage in the brain resulting in his passing just a few days afterwards.
Having listened to the commentary and watched the media surrounding the inquest this past couple of days, I have experienced the anger, hurt and frustration of the Australian cricketing community.
I have seen a family still completely devastated by the loss of a son. It is why I decided to take a different path last night, I went to YouTube and remembered Hughes for what he was. An exciting and lovable batsman whose time on this earth was brief, but left us with some endurable memories.
In his first Test match against one of the most fearsome pace attacks in world cricket in front of an intimidating Johannesburg crowd, he was dismissed for a duck by Dale Steyn in the first Test innings. A lesser cricketer would have been crushed and a lamb to the slaughter in the second innings against the intimidation of Steyn and company.
However, Hughes flourished and peeled off an entertaining 75 including 11 crisply struck fours and an audacious six. The kid had survived his first outing in the brutal examination of temperament and technique that is Test match cricket, and it was just the entrée.
In the second Test at the Sahara Stadium, Kingmead, Durban the 20-year old came of age, he became the youngest Australian batsman to score a century in both innings of a Test match. The footwork was sparkling, the shot making was exquisite and the complete package was just a joy to watch. The South Africans were shell shocked, the bowlers at a loss, this young punk from Australia had slayed the dragon in the dragon’s backyard.
It can be easily forgotten that just a few months before Hughes’s maiden Test match, Australia had suffered a humiliating home Test series defeat against the Proteas. The return series in South Africa had the experts predicting a comfortable victory for the home side. Yet on the back of an energetic, swashbuckling 20-year-old opening batsman, Australia triumphed against the odds and recorded a comfortable series victory.
The Australian cricketing community was abuzz and the adulation and comparisons came. Hughes was mentioned in dispatches to being the reincarnation of a young Neil Harvey, a lofty comparison indeed. Having never been one to place stock in comparisons, I was just thankful I made the decision to stay up late at night and suffer the next working day to witness first hand such an arrival on the Australian cricketing scene.
The struggles came and the 2009 Ashes campaign in England is not pretty viewing, as he was taken apart and roughed up by Andrew Flintoff and subsequently dropped from the side. However, Hughes was the not first batsman to be ruthlessly picked apart on English soil by Flintoff, Adam Gilchrest can testify to that.
Another highlight was just around the corner however, and the third and final Test match century against Sri Lanka in Colombo makes for pretty special viewing. The poise and temperament shown in that innings belied his age. The innings can perhaps now be looked upon with a greater respect and admiration. Australia’s recent disastrous tour of Sri Lanka puts Hughes inning into context, where no batsman could knuckle down and show an ounce of grit and determination when the series was on the line, like Hughes had done all those years before.
There were other cameos from Hughes over his brief career, the century on debut in the one-day arena at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is compelling viewing. A second match winning century in the fifth game of the series had me believing he was well on the way to resurrecting his Test career via the shorter format like so many had done before him. Unfortunately fate intervened and Hughes was tragically taken from us in the most brutal of circumstances.
Coronial inquests are not pretty occasions, the New South Wales coroner has an obligation to explore all possible avenues of inquiry and circumstances to explain why a young man died playing a simple game of cricket.
The coroner does not have an agenda, nor does he have a desire to single out and persecute individuals. The coroner just has a responsibility to ensure that every possible safety measure was in place and recommended any improvements. It does not do anyone any good to question the role and responsibility of the coroner.
The Hughes family are grieving and they want answers, they deserve to have the questions being asked answered this week in the inquest more than anyone. It is impossible to comprehend what they are experiencing. The parents of Hughes had to do what no parents should ever have to do, and that is bury a child who had the world at his feet. It cannot be anyone’s business in the cricket community to question the motives of the Hughes family during this difficult time.
No doubt some members throughout the Australian cricketing community are questioning the purpose and motives of the inquest this week. Instead of getting angry or upset and potentially lashing out, just take a moment to pause and use the opportunity to remember Phillip Hughes for what he was. A young vibrant and likeable cricketer who was a breath of fresh air on the cricketing landscape and captured our hearts.
There can be no winners in this difficult week. Let all of us make sure there are no losers this week either by apportioning blame or questioning a grieving family’s right to have questions answered.
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