The day a town came to watch Hughes

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has spoken of the day the sublime batting exploits of a pre-teen Phillip Hughes drew one of its first ever crowds.

Speaking to 4BC Breakfast on the day the batsman will be farewelled in Macksville, Sutherland told the story he’d heard from one of Hughes’s under-age representative coaches after arriving in the country town.

“Obviously, as a cricketer, he was phenomenal,” he said.

“The day before yesterday I bumped into his New South Wales Under-13 coach who was telling me he made a hundred on the first day – it was up on Cobram Barooga on the Murray – and on the first day of the carnival he made a hundred.

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“The next day, word had obviously got around town in Cobram that there was this very good cricketer who was probably going to play for Australia around and there was about 20 or 30 old blokes, 50 or 60 cricket tragics, who turned up the next day to see him bat.

“Unfortunately NSW lost the toss and were in the field to start off with and they all disappeared.

“But they all came back at lunch time to watch him bat in the afternoon.”

The Cricket Australia chief also praised the 26-Test player for his incredible politeness, respectfulness and down to earth nature.

“Not all players are happy or comfortable to talk to administrators,” Sutherland said.

”I’m not saying he was necessarily comfortable doing that – (but) he was always easy to talk to and always very polite and respectful.

“And not just of me or administrators, but I think of people generally.”

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Family, friends, teammates and mourners have all made their way to Hughes’s home town of Macksville, New South Wales over the last few days to pay their final respects to a cricketer and human being that brought them so much joy and whose life was cut tragically short.

The funeral will take place from 2pm at the Macksville High School sports hall, with Channel Nine broadcasting live from 1.30pm AEDT along with ABC and Fairfax radio.

The live stream of both television and radio broadcasts will also be available via cricket.com.au and the Cricket Australia Live app.