Phillips Hughes
Phillip Joel Hughes (30 November 1988 – 27 November 2014) was an Australian Test andOne Day International (ODI) cricketer who played domestic cricket for South Australiaand 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.[5]
Hughes scored his first Test century in March 2009, aged 20, in his second Test match forAustralia, opening the batting and hitting 115 in the first innings against South Africa inDurban. This made Hughes Australia's youngest Test centurion since Doug Waltersin 1965. In the second innings of the same match, Hughes scored 160, becoming the youngest cricketer in history to score centuries in both innings of a Test match (Australia won the match by 175 runs). On 11 January 2013, he became the first Australian batsman in the history of ODI cricket to score a century on debut, a feat which he achieved against Sri Lanka in Melbourne.[6]
On 25 November 2014, Hughes was hit in the neck by a bouncer, during a Sheffield Shieldmatch at the Sydney Cricket Ground, causing a vertebral artery dissection that led to asubarachnoid haemorrhage. The Australian team doctor, Peter Brukner, noted that only 100 such cases had ever been reported, with "only one case reported as a result of a cricket ball".[7] Hughes was taken to St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, where he underwent surgery, was placed into an induced coma and was in intensive care in a critical condition.[8]He died on 27 November, having never regained consciousness, three days before his 26th birthday.[9]
Phil Hughes batting
Early life and junior career
Hughes was born in Macksville, New South Wales to father Greg, a banana farmer, andItalian mother, Virginia.[10] Hughes was also a talented rugby league player who once played alongside Australia international Greg Inglis.[5]He played his junior cricket for Macksville RSL Cricket Club, where he excelled so quickly that he was playing A-Grade at the age of 12 and in Representative Cricket he scored a century.[10] At the age of 17, Hughes moved from Macksville to Sydney to play for Western Suburbs District Cricket Club in Sydney Grade Cricket[11] while he attended Homebush Boys High. He scored 141* on his grade debut and enjoyed a solid 2006–07 season scoring 752 runs at an average of 35.81 with a highest score of 142*.[12] He represented Australia at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He was coached at Triforce Sports Cricket Centre in Mortlake.
First-class career
After scoring runs prolifically for New South Wales youth teams and Western Suburbs inGrade Cricket, Hughes was handed a rookie contract by New South Wales for the 2007–08 season.[13] After scores of 51 and 137 for the New South Wales Second XI against Victoria's Second XI,[14] He was rewarded with a call up by Blues selectors to make his first-classdebut. He played his first senior game againstTasmania on 20 November 2007 at theSydney Cricket Ground. At 18 years and 355 days, Hughes was the youngest New South Wales debutant since Michael Clarke in 1999.[15] In a comfortable victory for New South Wales, Hughes opened the batting and got his career off to a solid start, scoring a fluent 51 and taking 2 catches.[16]
Hughes had an outstanding debut season for New South Wales, playing seven matches and scoring 559 runs at an average of 62.11 with one century and six fifties.[17] The highlight of Hughes' excellent season came in New South Wales' Pura Cup final victory over Victoria. He scored 116 off 175 balls in the Blues' second innings to help put his team in a commanding position. At 19 years of age, this innings made him the youngest ever player to score a century in a Sheffield Shield final.[18] Hughes was rewarded for his achievements by winning the New South Wales Rising Star Award and earning an upgrade to a full state contract for the 2008–09 season.[19][20]
Hughes was signed by Middlesex on a short-term contract, as cover for Murali Kartik, for the beginning of the 2009 English cricket season.[21][22] He was available for the first six weeks of the season and played in threeCounty Championship matches, all eight of Middlesex's Friends Provident Trophy group matches and the first few matches in the Panthers' defence of the Twenty20 Cup.[23] In most other years, a contract for the opening six weeks of the season would involve playing four to six championship matches, some but not all FPT matches and no Twenty20, but the scheduling for 2009 had to accommodate ICC World Twenty20 and the eventually-cancelledStanford Super Series. Despite Hughes holding an Italian passport by virtue of his Italian mother, Middlesex resisted signing him up as a Kolpak player and instead signed him as a foreign player.[24] He enjoyed strong success in England, scoring 574 runs in his three first-class matches, including three hundreds, at an average of 143.50.[25] Of his time at Middlesex, Hughes commented:
Hughes hit consecutive hundreds at the end of the 2010/11 season to earn the praise of Australian chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch. In his last two first-class matches for New South Wales in the 2010/11 season he scored 54, 115, 138 and 93. Australia's chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, said "I was thrilled for Phil, I think he turned the corner the last game. I spent a bit of time with him before the last Shield game and he seemed to be in a really good place. Having had a tough season, to emerge like he has is a credit to him."[27]
List A career
Less than a week after his debut in first-class cricket, on 28 November 2007, Hughes made his List A debut against Victoria at theMelbourne Cricket Ground. While he was not originally scheduled to play the match, sickness to Australian opening batsman Phil Jaques handed him the spot.[28] Just as he did in his first-class debut, Hughes passed 50 but was eventually dismissed for 68, top scoring for New South Wales in a "controlled" display.[29]
After New South Wales' wicket-keeper Brad Haddin was struck in the head by a top edge, Hughes took on the keeping duties for nine overs. On 17 May 2009, Hughes made his first limited overs century, scoring 119 for Middlesex against Warwickshire. On 29 July 2014, he made a double century (202 not out from 151 balls) in a match with South Africa A in Darwin.[30]
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