The whole of Australia is mourning today to honour the memory of one of its favourite sons.
In what is perhaps the biggest funeral the town has ever seen, thousands gather into the assembly hall at Macksville High School to celebrate a life that ended all to prematurely last week.
Phillip died just three days before his 26th birthday in St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney two days after he was struck on the back of the head by a bouncer in a Sheffield Shield cricket match on November 25.
Cricket bats outside Phillip’s former school, St Patricks Primary. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
The hall was overflowing with Phillip’s family – his father Greg and German mother Virginia, his brother Jason, sister Megan and girlfriend Samantha Trodden – and more than a thousand of his friends and relatives who gathered in Macksville from all over Australia and the world.
Those watching included Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Opposition leader Bill Shorten and NSW Premier Mike Baird but so were many of the greats of Australian and international cricket including present Australian captain Michael Clarke, former captains Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh, spin master Shane Warne, batting great Dean Jones as well as West Indian champion Brian Lara, New Zealand’s Sir Richard Hadlee and India’s former captain Ravi Shastri.
Thousands more of Phillip’s friends sat outside in the Macksville sunshine on the high school oval listening to a broadcast of the ceremony as those inside listened to readings from brother Jason, sister Megan and Samantha Trodden. “Your presence will never leave the people who love and adore you,” his sister Megan told the crowd. “I promise I will talk to you every day. I know that now is the time to say goodbye but I also know it won’t be forever. I love you big brother.”
Phillip Hughes.
Father Michael Alcock said that he did not know why Phillip was so young. “How could such a thing happen to such a young man?” he asked. “I have no answers but I do know that the world is a better place for his life, his vitality and presence.”
Phillip’s coffin sat at the front of hall, bedecked in white roses. Poignantly leaning against the casket was Phillip’s cricket bat, just as across the country thousands of cricket bats have been displayed as a mark of respect for a man whose death touched so many of us. His baggy green cap hung on a hat stand on the stage behind the coffin.
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The coffin arrives. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Michael Clarke was close to tears as he arrived to speak and needed a few moments to compose himself before he began. “You could certainly call me a sook right now, that’s for sure,” he said, barely holding his emotions in rein.
“Taken from the game, his family and his loved ones at the age of 25, Phillip left a mark on our game that needs no embellishment. I don’t know about you but I keep looking for him. I know it’s crazy but I expect at any minute to take a call from him or to see his face pop around the corner. Is this what we call spirit? If it is then his spirit is still with me and I hope he never leaves.”
Many believed Phillip Hughes was destined for cricketing greatness. At just 25, and with more than 20 Test matches for Australia under his belt, he was young but exceptionally talented.
He played 26 Test matches for Australia and scored three centuries, including 115 runs against South Africa in Durban in 2009 – his second time at the crease for Australia. In doing so he became the youngest Australian batsman to make a test century since Doug Walters in 1965.
He was also the first Australian to score a century on debut in a one day international, which shows his talent spread evenly over the multiple forms of the game.
His death is a tragedy on so many levels – for his family, his friends, his fans and even for so many who didn’t know him but admired him for what he did on the cricket ground. His name had already been penciled in as an important member of the Australian squad for the 2015 world cup campaign.
There was so much that Philip might have achieved if his life had not been cut short in this freak sporting accident. Today we witnessed extraordinary scenes in Macksville, his home town where cricketing greats walked alongside prime ministers as they all paid their respects to a young man who touched us all.
