Sri Lankan and English cricket captains pay tribute to Phillip Hughes

Saturday, 29 November 2014 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: The captains of the England and Sri Lanka cricket teams paid tribute to Australian batsman Phil Hughes on Friday following the 25-year-old’s death earlier this week. Angelo Matthews and counterpart Alastair Cook are leading their teams in a one-day international series in Sri Lanka. But the remaining six matches - Sri Lanka won the first - are likely to be overshadowed by the death of Hughes, who was hit by a bouncer during a domestic game in Sydney on Tuesday. “First of all we were all deeply shocked and saddened by this incident,” Matthews told reporters at a news conference in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. “It was totally surprising, unexpected. Phil Hughes is a very humble guy, thorough gentlemen and he is a fighter when it comes to cricket. I think the loss of him will definitely be a big loss for cricket. It was an unfortunate incident and we never expect something like this to happen when you bowl a bouncer. “The bowlers, even when they are aggressive you don’t expect them to get hurt. It’s just a game of cricket and it was just unfortunate incident. There won’t be any thoughts regarding those bouncers, but I think it was just an unfortunate incident. Our thoughts and prayers to his family, loved ones, his team mates and Australian cricketing fans and fans across the world.” The injury that Hughes suffered - the ball hit him on the back of the head and split his vertebral artery - has been described as a freak occurrence. And Matthews said he hoped such an incident won’t happen again. “I had a very tough day going through it,” he said. “Even though he is an Australian he is our mate and when you lose a friend it is very difficult to go through. But I hope and pray that we will never ever hear again of such an incident in the field of cricket or in any other sport.” Cook, who played against Hughes in three Ashes series, said he was still coming to terms with his death. “It’s been really, really sad day yesterday,” he said. “A tragic day for cricket and words I say here doesn’t do anything justice really. “I know discussions went on about whether we should be playing tomorrow. I think both sides agreed that out of respect we should carry on playing tomorrow. Show our respects in the right way to Phil and try and put on a good show.” There have been calls for the ICC and domestic cricket boards to improve player safety in the wake of the Hughes incident. But Cook said he believed cricketers were better protected than ever. “As we know this is a real tragic accident,” he said. “I don’t think we should change the way cricket is played, we play cricket all because I don’t think that is the right way go about it. We’ve got to make sure that we keep working hard as we can with the manufacturers and the authorities to make cricket as safe as you can. “It is a real reminder I think to everyone that can’t take anything for granted. We have got to keep improving players’ safety. The improvements I have seen since I’ve started playing cricket gone through the roof, especially helmets, the technology going in there. And we just have to keep working as hard as we can.”

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