Agencies
Sydney, January 5
The Sydney Cricket Ground Trust has unveiled a plaque to commemorate the late cricketer Phillip Hughes.
The plaque has been placed outside the Australian change rooms.
The fourth and final Test against India at the SCG will be the first time the squad has competed on the field since Hughes was fatally hit by a bouncer during a Sheffield Shield game against New South Wales five weeks ago.
Captain Steve Smith says the plaque is a fitting way to remember their fallen team-mate.“I think it’s great that the Trust has been able to do something like that for us,” he told reporters.
“We’ve just to make sure we’re very respectful to the Hughes family that are going to be down here for this Test match. I think that’s very important to us and very important to them.”
“Hughesy was one of us, he was a good mate,” Smith added.
“To be able to walk past that and see the little fella … it’ll give us some inspiration as we’re going out on the field.”
Smith was adamant the Australians would play the final Test of the summer with the same aggression with which they have approached the first three games.
Australia opener David Warner, who was on the SCG alongside Australian teammates Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Nathan Lyon when Hughes was struck, reiterated that turning out at the SCG would be one of the biggest hurdles he has faced since the death of his good friend.
“I know when I go to face up at that Randwick End I’m going to be looking down at that spot,” Warner said at a press conference on Sunday.
“It’s going to be tough but I’ve got to try and hold back the emotions and do what I do for the team and try and score runs,” he added.
“But every time I come here, every time I walk out on the field, every time I’ve got nothing on my mind I’m going to be thinking about it.”
The plaque reads:
Phillip Hughes
1988-2014
Macksville-born Phillip Hughes became the youngest man to score a century in a Sheffield Shield final when he posted 116 at the SCG during NSW’s win against Victoria in 2007-08.
The dashing and unorthodox left-hand batsman had earned his first NSW cap earlier that season, aged just 18.
Hughes made three more first-class centuries at the SCG, having quickly become a crowd favourite.
The boy from Macksville also became a hugely popular member of the world’s cricketing elite, forging friendships at home and abroad as as he accumulated runs.
Hughes scored 9,023 first-class runs at 46.51, compiling 26 hundreds from 114 matches. He became Australia’s 408th Test player during the 2008-09 tour of South Africa – a series in which he also became the youngest player to post centuries in both innings of a Test, and this, in only his second ever Test match.
He played thee Tests at the SCG, narrowly missing a century in the 2012-13 summer when dismissed for 87 against Sri Lanka.
Hughes faced his last ball on 25 November 2014, playing for South Australia against NSW at the SCG.
His death two days later united the sporting world in grief, with Cricket Australia declaring him 63 not out forever – his final score at the SCG. His funeral in his home town was attended by thousands, with many more watching from the SCG.
