I FIRST MET PHILLIP HUGHES when he came down to Sydney from Macksville to watch a Western Suburbs club match. A schoolboy then, he was going to join our club when he moved to the city that summer, and he came to the post-match celebrations with Neil D’Costa, then my batting coach, and also Hughesy’s. That Phillip would be playing at my club made him automatically a friend.
Never could I have guessed where that friendship would take us, but I was drawn to him immediately, and wanted to offer whatever advice I could in cricket and life.
It isn’t hard to pinpoint why I, and every person Phillip met on his journey, would form strong bonds with him. Yes, he had a great sense of humour and, as everyone came to learn, he was a wonderfully loyal family man.
But it was also the way Phillip attacked life. Whether it was training, learning, working, partying or laughing, he would do it all with a genuine and infectious enthusiasm.
You could fill a book with stories about Phillip Hughes – and this is that book. It is a celebration of his life, and if there was one positive in the dark days when the cricket community gathered in Macksville in December 2014, it was that we could share some of these stories and take some time to be thankful to have known Phillip.
As a cricketer, he was the ultimate team man: a hard worker who loved training to get better. He played the game for the right reasons. He absolutely loved cricket and loved playing for Australia as much as anyone I have known. I believe he was good enough to go on and play 100 Test matches.
But more than anything, Phillip was my friend. We would always call or text each other, no matter where we were around the world, and help each other through tough times when required. When success came, we celebrated each other’s as if it were our own.
Friendship was Phillip’s great talent. Everywhere he went, he created new friends. That is a rare and special gift.
The Hugheses are amazing people, a salt-of-the-earth country family who loved that he played cricket for Australia but, above all, loved him for who he was.
Phillip’s family have had their hearts broken – his death is more than just losing a son and brother. Their loss is always there.
We in the cricket world share their grief, and we owe them a debt for sharing their Phillip with us, a unique cricketer and a one-of-a-kind human being.
MICHAEL CLARKE