Phillip Hughes

And like big deep breath and let's go type thing.

And then Mike, I was lucky enough to have an incredible group of people around me when I debuted and had Mike Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, Brad Harden, Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, um, Michael Clarke, these guys, but there's real senior guys, and there was like Uzi, Phil Hughes, in that younger group as well.

So when I remember standing at the top of my mark, Mike Hussey ran up from mid-on and just said, whatever you do, just do it with a smile on your face.

Enjoy the moment and you'll relax.

...

Phil Hughes had been.

I like it.

I like it as an appointment.

I don't know his name.

Philip Hughes.

What

a shame.

Yeah.

The lowest point in my career was when Philip Hughes passed away.

Yeah.

I'm going to ask you about him in a second.

So he's widely respected as an exceptionally talented batsman, tactically sharp captain and fierce competitor.

But throughout his career, he divided public opinion because he was more glamorous, celebrity facing than the traditional Australian cricket archetype.

Interestingly, perception softened significantly later in his career, particularly through his leadership after Philip Hughes' death, where many Australians saw a much more vulnerable, compassionate side of him.

Philip Hughes was a highly talented Australian batsman, one of your best friends.

great, great song for sure.

And you got Phillip Hughes on lead and Tim Shirt on baritone.

Yeah.

Just in the middle of driving that song.

The commentators also seem surprisingly calm and I do query perhaps the one group of people I am willing to be a little bit more critical of are the TV directors who show multiple slow motion replays of what is a pretty sickening incident to watch.

I think for all of us today, we're watching this in the context of Philip Hughes' tragic death in 2014.

And I don't think any one player, umpire, commentator would respond in quite a similar way today.

It is interesting, isn't it, though, this question of when sport becomes spectacle.

We all knew that people could get seriously hurt.

It was pretty unthinkable that it was going to be.

you know, kind of the ultimate seriousness until the Philip Hughes incident came along.

And that did kind of change the perception across the board, didn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

But, but no one had make, made a double in state cricket, but not long before this was when Philip Hughes made a double against a South Africa-

Yes

...

Will Sheridan was in that side who played Shield cricket for Victoria oh first class cricket for Victoria I think and Mitch Gowan who's one of the best best cricketers best bats I ever sort of come across we beat them and then the third day I think we had Riverina we beat them and then we ended up in the final against Hunter and we ended up winning it and we were just like it was essentially from zero to hero sort of thing and first time the Western region ever won the CHS carnival and that was pretty special um playing at the scg that was that was very special like your dream well for me for me scg is the home of cricket people say lords and all that sort of stuff but if you ask me the best players that have ever played the game uh called the scg home and there's just so much history there so to be able to play to be able to play in that play i'll play on the scg and captain the sides that i played on on there like Yeah, it was just very, very special.

I played with Philip Hughes.

Philip Hughes is probably the best...

Yeah, it's hard to say best cricketer that you ever...

But definitely the best bat that I ever played against.

I've been lucky to play against Steve Smith and all those guys.

Philip Hughes always holds a soft spot in my heart.

Been a left-hand open at bat.

And who knows, he may come off in South Africa.

I mean, back in 2009, Philip Hughes went there and smashed Telstain and Mourney Morkle all over the place.

So, you know, there's a potential for that to happen.

With Marnus Labuschagne, I think I would stick with him, because I just don't know who else is going to come in as a number three.