The Adelaide Test is set to be the first Day-Night Test and will be played with the pink ball and will indeed turn out to be special in more ways than one.
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Blues players Nic Maddinson, Doug Bollinger, Stephen O’Keefe and Sean Abbott were all on the field when Hughes was hit and have been named in the NSW squad for the clash with Queensland.
“Cricket Australia has gone over and beyond to do as much as they can so something like this freak accident doesn’t happen again”.
“You can erect plaques, and that’s all nice, but when it’s said and done, are we doing everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again to someone’s child?”
Cricket Australia has announced that the first day of the third Test will include a tribute to Hughes on the first anniversary of his death on November 27, 2014.
“They wouldn’t want to see someone get hit with that pink ball at dusk on global television. They’re facing the fastest bowler in the world now – it should mean something”.
“The introduction of the neck guard, I think that has been quite big so I do think it should be made compulsory”, he told the newspaper.
A number of senior players have since retired from global cricket, Johnson being the most recent of a line that includes former skipper Michael Clarke, allrounder Shane Watson and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin – who all played in provincial and national teams with Hughes. The youth was not seriously hurt. We are going to do our best to play with a smile on our face and hopefully play well for Hughesy.
As Steve O’Keefe puts it, cricket was forever changed in the “blink of a ball”.
Smith, along with Australia’s opening batsman David Warner and spinner Nathan Lyon, were at the Sydney Cricket Ground playing for New South Wales when 26-test batsman Hughes promptly collapsed after being struck by a rising delivery.
Several low key tributes are planned to commemorate Hughes’s death on Friday, with both the Australian and New Zealand teams expected to wear black armbands and a video montage to be played at 4:08 p.m. during the first scheduled break in play.
“I think it’s really important that we continue to support the Hughes family and show our respect”.
“We always know that our mate is looking down on us and we’ll always do our best for him when we walk out in the field, as we have done in the last 12 months”.
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Team doctor Peter Brukner treated the young bowler for a laceration behind his the ear – with the ball appearing to strike the head in a similar place to where Hughes was felled.
