Comment: Phillip Hughes - one of the genuine good guys

Phillip Hughes

As a reporter, you do the ring-around to piece together exactly what happened and the possible outcomes.      

With every call, your heart sank deeper and the stomach churned.

Nobody close to the incident spoke positively about Hughes' condition or his chances of recovery, despite what the message may have been publicly.

One told me early on: "Everyone is hoping for a miracle but it will take more than that."

It got to the stage where you didn't want to make anymore calls because it was bad news at every turn.

It wasn't about grabbing a quote and banging the keyboard to get a story up.

You just wanted someone to tell you he'd pull through this and walk out of the hospital in one piece.

Phone call after phone call, those words were never uttered.

Tragically, jockeys occasionally die in that most dangerous of pursuits and motor racing is sadly littered with stories of drivers being killed at the wheel.   

But nobody dies playing cricket. And certainly not good blokes like Phillip Hughes.

I'm not going to pretend I knew him well but I was fortunate to cover the little left-hander when he was an unknown Sheffield Shield player.

He was our little secret for a while but it soon became clear the small band of Shield reporters would have to share him with the rest of the cricketing world.

We knew we were watching something special.

He might not have been the most orthodox of batsmen but geez he was brave, talented, entertaining and very, very effective.

A lovely country kid with manners to match, Hughes was living his dream large.   

It was only a matter of time before he landed a baggy green. Our 408th Test cricketer. 

You felt gutted when his debut ended with a four-ball duck and exhilarated when he turned it around the next Test with tons in each innings.

There was further disappointment to come when he was axed from the Test side, four times in all. 

Those who criticised his flamboyance and extravagance are the types who order sweet and sour pork every time they have Chinese.

He didn't turn dirty on the world. He simply went away and worked harder at his game, banking hundreds of runs so selectors could never delete him from their files.  

Hughes should have been strolling out at the Gabba next Thursday. Instead, we are preparing for his funeral.

Vale Phillip Joel Hughes. 

You were one of the genuine good ones.

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