Phil Hughes knocked out by bouncer at SCG

horrific scenes..hope he pulls through..glad they called the game off

hopefully he pulls through, thoughts with him and his family

If the reports are true they did CPR on the pitch which doesn't bode well.

I really hope he comes through and hasn't suffered brain damage

Sean Abbott will be feeling distraught if he doesn't (even if he does he still will).. terrible stuff

Tragic , latest news.

Passed away.  No longer critical.

So very sad

RIP.

RIP

You just don't expect it in cricket. Jockeys, race car drivers and the daredevil sports you know it's just a matter of time but cricket... Never heard of anything like it. Doctor just said prior to this there has only ever been one reported incidence of the injury by a cricket ball and that St Vincents in Sydney just don't ever see this injury, that's how rare it is. and this kid, world at his feet cops it. Just shocking.

The fcking idiots complaining about the ambos give me the sh1ts. Ambulances don't sit in stations waiting for a call.  They are usually on the way back from another call when they respond. The nearest ambulance is allocated to a job.
Having an ambulance station nearby means fcking nothing.
These people work 12-14 hour shifts, often without a break, and now they have to listen to this sh1t.

iv read a few stories today..thought this was pretty good..



RIP Phillip Hughes. Those have to be the saddest words ever written in the name of cricket. This has to be cricket's saddest day.

Others have died playing the game. Others have died playing other games. But no cricketer so high profile can have died so publicly, and in such grim circumstances. No sportsman's death can have come as such a shock.

Hughes was a Test cricketer, with all that imports in Australian sport. For all anyone knows, dammit, he had been pencilled into the Test team again in the hour before his calamitous accident. It was between him and two others for a vacancy in the team to play India in Brisbane from next Thursday, and he was in the runs again.

Whether anyone has the stomach to play that match now, who knows? Whether the match even can or should be played, again, who can say? As Hughes' many devoted friends in cricket gathered – literally and in cyberspace – and huddled and hugged and wept and tried to find their bearings and failed, none looked remotely up for playing a match or watching one.
Advertisement

If they do play, it will only be because of a solemn consensus that Hughesy would have wanted it. He was never a man for a fuss.

For all the drama that surrounds cricket, for all its gravity and froth, for the reaching for glory, the falling short, the fame, the infamy, for the way cricket is held up as a metaphor for life, it is just a game. Yes, in Australia, we play it for sheep stations, but not life and death. Then death came into play anyway.

It is the game Hughes fell in love with as a boy, and applied himself to like few others, and wrestled with, and was sometimes vexed by, and more often master of, and for all anyone knows would have mastered again. In cricket terms, he was young enough for his best years still to lie ahead. In life, he was young enough for it still to be beginning. In three more days, he would have turned 26.

Within this game, there are games. Hughes knew this. Even as Sean Abbott's bouncer thudded into the pitch at the SCG shortly after lunch on Monday and speared towards him, he knew the score. So did Abbott. So did all of cricketing Australia. It was this type of ball that had troubled him more than most.

Abbott bowled it to ruffle him, to distract him, to break his concentration, to manoeuvre him out of position, to provoke him to play a false shot, to that ball or one soon after. This was a game. Abbott did not bowl it to harm. Feel for him; he has a life sentence.

This much we must believe, that Hughes' last thought simply was, here's four runs. Here's another step towards 100. Here's the Test door comng ajar again. That can and must be his family's consolation, that he died doing what he loved.

This much we can also believe, that he can barely have known what hit him. He lost consciousness on the pitch, and never regained it. He was not in pain when he died, and he had his family around him. He was 25 years old, and 63 not out. There was so much more to come.

In lieu, at least there is what there was of Hughes' short life to cherish. He was a humble man, country bred, without airs, and an intriguing cricketer, with a way of batting that was all his own. It brought thousands of runs, some would say despite his technique, he would say because of it. He modified it, refined it, but resisted all importuning to abandon it; in this, he had singular courage of his convictions. It was his hallmark.

At his best, he was exciting, never more so than when slashing a hundred in each innings of his second Test, against the formidable South Africans in Durban, founding a series win for a then woebegone Australian team. In recent Australian cricket history, those innings were landmarks. He was 19.

Fits and starts followed, and in the meantime every pub coach in Australia was on his case. He never touched those heights again. He never will.

Hughes' death shakes us because it seemed impossible for a sportsman to be fatally injured this way, surrounded by protection, without warning, instantaneously, innocently, as in a car crash. It makes us more mortal than yesterday. Because of it, every part of the game will be looked at again: rules, protocols, protection, philosophy, culture.

His injury was a one in a you-name-a-number chance, only once previously inflicted by a cricket ball anywhere, said Cricket Australia doctor Peter Brukner. It is one too many.

In any other cricket year, this is a time of delicious anticipation, a week before the first Test, when nothing has happened and anything can. Not this year, not now. Instead, it is a time for mourning, for crying, for dwelling, for sighing, for holding hands and holding memories and holding up, and taking nothing in sport and in life for granted, not even that there will be a tomorrow, let alone another cricket match.

brilliant article Bigted - just about the best I've read - thanks

do you know who wrote it?

Sean Abbott trending on Twitter. Overwhelming public concern for the kid which is good to see, have not read a single negative comment. God only knows how he recovers from this.

RIP Phil

Raised the juniors from 50 to 63 as the score to retire on for the weekend I believe.

https://soundcloud.com/eltonjohndotcom/elton-johns-phill-huges-dedication/s-dmbuP

That's brilliant Henry.

It is staggering how much this has got to people all over the world. I hope it makes Phil's family to proud to see he was so admired

Last round of the Australian Open today. They had a cricket bat resting up against the advertising boards on the 9th tee - 63rd hole of the tournament.