adminSYDNEY. – Cricket fans gathered across Australia yesterday to mourn the death of batsman Phillip Hughes, a show of support described by Michael Clarke as the “spirit of cricket that binds us all together” in a eulogy to his close friend.
While Clarke was speaking at the funeral in Hughes’s hometown of Macksville, thousands of fans braved the heat at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), the Adelaide Oval, the Gabba and the WACA to express their grief.
Despite blanket live coverage of the funeral on local television and international news networks like the BBC and CNN, many of those present at Australia’s iconic cricket venues had travelled hundreds of kilometres to remember Hughes.
“As a fan of cricket, I felt obligated,” said Ken Johnson from St George, who spoke to Reuters at the SCG, just metres from where Hughes suffered the fatal blow to the head from a bouncer during a state match last Tuesday.
At the SCG, the many cricket bats and floral tributes that had been laid outside the gates since Hughes died last Thursday had been brought into the ground and arranged on the wicket. – AFP.
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