27 November 2014 :: Australia and South Australia batsman Phillip Hughes died in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, as a result of the injuries he picked up after being hit by a bouncer while batting at the SCG in a Sheffield Shield game two days earlier. Three days after is his 26th birthday.
Phillip Hughes
Phillip Joel Hughes (30 November 1988 – 27 November 2014) was an Australian Test and One-Day International (ODI) cricketer who played domestic cricket for South Australia and Worcestershire. He was a left-handed opening batsman who played for two seasons with New South Wales before making his Test debut in 2009 at the age of 20.
Hughes was born in Macksville, a small town on the north coast of New South Wales, to parents Greg and Virginia. The son of a banana farmer and an Italian mother, Hughes was also a talented rugby league player who once played alongside Australian rugby league international Greg Inglis. He played his junior cricket for Macksville R.S.L Cricket Club, where he excelled so quickly that he was playing A-Grade at the age of 12.
During a Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 25 November 2014, while batting on 63 not out, Hughes was struck in the neck by a bouncer from New South Wales bowler Sean Abbott. Hughes was wearing a helmet. He collapsed before receiving mouth to mouth resuscitation and was subsequently taken to St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney where he underwent surgery and was placed into an induced coma. Hughes’ injury was a rare vertebral artery dissection which led to subarachnoid haemorrhage.
The match was immediately abandoned, and early the next day Cricket Australia announced that the other two Shield games that were being played elsewhere in Australia would also be abandoned, stating “Given how players across the country are feeling right now, it’s just not the day to be playing cricket”.
Hughes died two days later from his injuries, aged 25. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said “For a young life to be cut short playing our national game seems a shocking aberration. He was loved, admired and respected by his team-mates and by legions of cricket fans”.
Play on the second day of the third Test between Pakistan and New Zealand in the United Arab Emirates was suspended, with the match extended by an extra day.
The tour match between the Cricket Australia XI and India team was cancelled in light of Phillip’s passing.
