An emotional Michael Clarke remembered Phillip Hughes before the fourth Test commenced here on Tuesday.
Hughes’s family, in a heart-warming gesture, was present at the SCG when the match got underway.
Clarke said: “This was his (Hughes’s) ground, the Sydney Cricket Ground. This is where he played his last game, this is where his spirit will live forever. I never had a blood brother but he was my brother.”
The injured Australia captain added: “Together, we enjoyed life and celebrated one another’s success, when he made runs and when I made runs. It felt like we made our hundreds together.”
“His love of life, it helped me get out of bed in the morning, I didn’t want him to beat me at anything, yet loved it when he did. A good guy who fought for everything he ever got and then fought some more, who never gave up. In death, he brought the sporting world together, the cricket community. The game might be bigger than any individual but it stopped for Phil Hughes, it stopped in its tracks, didn’t it?
“Even today I’m still waiting for him to call. The cheeky little bugger, he would be up there, smiling on us now wanting us to be happy enjoying life, getting on with it. I will never play a Test match again without the number 408 on my shirt, his Test number,” Clarke said.
