Hughes gone but not forgotten

Exceptional, unbreakable and special.

These are just some of the adjectives used to describe Phillip Hughes since his all-too-soon passing.

As the cricketing world continues to come to grips with Hughes’s death, former teammates, coaches and mentors have shared their memories of the diminutive left hander.

“From the moment I met him, I knew he was a very special young man,” Langer wrote in his column for News Corp.

“He stayed with us for a few days in Perth. He wanted to do some training. Left-handed openers stick together.”

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After pushing the left-hander to, what he assumed, were his limits Langer couldn’t help but marvel at Hughes’s remarkable resilience.

“You couldn't keep him down,” he wrote.

“I was fascinated by his courage, his resolve, his toughness.

“I tried everything to break him down. He ran on the beach, he hit balls on the bowling machine, we boxed, he lifted weights. It got to the point where enough was enough. Surely.

“Instead, all I got was that grin, and “What’s next Lang, what’s next?”

“The kid was tough. So tough.”

Michael Hussey, in his own column, recalled Hughes’s twin centuries in Durban and the then 20-year-old’s fearless approach to facing ‘one of the great attacks of the modern era’ in Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Morné Morkel and Jacques Kallis.

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The 79-Test great described the high esteem in which Hughes was held within the Australian team with a touching anecdote from the first Test in Johannesburg.

“South African paceman Dale Steyn had thrown a verbal grenade in Phillip’s direction prior to the Test, warning he was going to rough him up with some short-pitched balls and then get him out," Hussey wrote.

“We laughed it off, but sure enough, that’s exactly what Steyn did.

“What happened next taught me a lot about mateship and just how much this cheeky little bugger was liked by his teammates.

“Victorian Peter Siddle didn't say a word to anyone about Steyn’s treatment of Phillip. He didn’t even mention it to our captain Ricky Ponting.

“But when Steyn walked out to the crease at the tail of the South African innings, Siddle immediately told the umpire he was going to bowl around the wicket.

“Then he bowled short ball after short ball at Steyn, eyeballing him and following through with the comment: ‘That’s what you get for going after my little mate.’”

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Middlesex County Cricket Club managing director Angus Fraser, also wrote of the Phillip Hughes he knew during the New South Welshman’s stint at Middlesex in 2009 and the deep sadness felt by him and the entire club following his death.

“Lord’s knows who the good guys in cricket are and Phillip Hughes was certainly one of them”, Fraser wrote after hearing of Hughes’s passing.

“Phillip was only with Middlesex CCC for a short period of time in 2009 but he made an impression that very few followers and staff of the club will ever forget.

“He was sensational both on and off the field, and the relationships he formed with many of us have made this tragedy even harder to absorb.

“I will never forget him confronting the formidable former South African fast bowler Andre Nel during probably his best innings for Middlesex, the 195 he smashed against Surrey at The Oval.

“Nel had taken exception to the hiding he was receiving and bowled a beamer at Hughes.

“Even now I still have this wonderful vision of the diminutive Hughes following the bear like Nel down the pitch to inform the bowler he was: ‘weak, ******* weak, that is why you quit international cricket to play for Surrey.”

“Nel did not turn round to take him on.

“I am not a touchy feely sort of person but I hugged him when I dropped him off at Terminal 3. It seemed the natural thing to do."