Border-Gavaskar Trophy: With the documentary The boy from Macksville on the life of Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, who lost his life after a ball hit him ten years ago, releasing post the end of the opening day of the second Pink Ball Test match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy at Adelaide Oval, Hughes’s former team-mate Tom Cooper has shared about the tragic moment at Sydney Cricket Ground. The then 25-year-old Hughes, who was about to turn 26 in two days, was struck on the neck during a Sheffield Shield match on November 25, 2014 and had breathed his last in hospital two days later.
“He sort of swung around and at first I thought he looked at me. I was waiting for his cheeky grin but … yeah. I guess at that moment, no-one had any idea of the severity of what everyone had just witnessed. Pretty quickly we knew it was a bit more serious and he wasn’t just going to get up, but we still didn’t know what had actually happened. It felt like hours waiting for the ambulance to come. He was obviously [unconscious] and in hindsight was … gone, I guess,” Cooper said while speaking with ABC Sport during at tea break during the first day’s play at Adelaide.
Cooper, who played along with Hughes for South Australia for more than four years, was Hughes’s room-mate for most of the time during those four years at Melbourne. Hughes, who had played in 26 Tests for Australia prior to the incident, was set for a comeback in the Australian team before the tragedy happened. Cooper, who too had suffered a hit at almost the same spot while batting for South Australia in a Shield match in 2009, recounted how commentator Steve O’Keefe was trying to hold Hughes’ head. “I remember Steve O’Keefe was in there trying to hold his head, but everyone just couldn’t fathom what had just happened. And time was sort of at a standstill,” said Cooper.
The South Australia cricketer also recalled his time with Hughes as he got teary eyed during the tea-break remembering about Hughes’ funeral. On Friday, the Australian team honoured Phillip Hughes and former Australian cricketer Ian Redpath by wearing black armbands. “He was everyone’s mate. Everyone thought they were best mates with him, whether they played club cricket, whether they played in the Test side, it didn’t matter who they were, he made you feel like you mattered and that you were his mate. I think the people from around the world that flew in for his funeral goes to show that. Mateship is a word that stands out for me,” recalled Cooper.
