As Australian cricket prepares to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Phillip Hughes’ death, former coach Darren Lehmann has revealed the young batter had secretly won an Australian Test recall at a selectors’ meeting held before he was felled at the SCG in the tragic incident that took his life.
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In a moment that shook the sports world, Hughes was hit while batting for South Australia on November 25 which led to his life support being switched off two days later at St Vincent’s Hospital.
It is the first time Lehmann has confirmed Hughes had won a recall, telling a Code Sports special report into the life and passing of Hughes that his selection panel had decided Hughes would replace Chris Rogers in the next Test team.
“Yeah, we’d had a meeting, already,” former Australian coach Darren Lehmann told Code Sports.
“That was all done and we were about to tell Bucky Rogers he was going to make way out of the team.
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“Then obviously we had to put everything on hold.
“I was in the office (next to Allan Border Field) and they said Phil’s been hit. When we saw the video of that and he’s gone straight to hospital, I literally flew straight down. I just left work with just my tracksuit and that was it. I had to buy clothes when I got down there and work it all out.”
Lehmann was one of more than a dozen players, officials, coaches and friends the Code Sports team interviewed as part of the compelling package on the Hughes tragedy.
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Shane Watson was fielding at slip when Hughes was hit.
“I was one of the first ones to him after he collapsed. It was a very different experience to seeing people hit in the past. I knew something was very wrong and very bad, just with Phil’s reaction to the ball,” Watson said.
“Straight away my instinct was to run straight off the field. I just knew something wasn’t right,” David Warner added.
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“It’s something I’ve never gotten out of my head. I get flashbacks. There’s coping mechanisms, but it’s just something that will happen forever.”
The shock that an incident on the field could lead to death is something that no one in cricket ever expected.
“It had a huge impact on my life. The tragic thing about the whole accident for me was the innocence of the game of cricket just immediately vanished in that tragic moment when Phil got hit,” Watson said.
Close friend and then Australian captain Michael Clarke revealed he was in the room with the Hughes family when Phillip’s life support was switched off and cannot comprehend the impact the death of his “little brother” had on his life.
“Losing Phillip at such a young age is a big part of my life,” Clarke told Code Sports.
“I cherish my life a lot more now than I ever did. I enjoy my journey a lot more now than I ever did as a youngster.
“I look back now and wish when I played for Australia that I was more like this. That I stopped to smell the roses and realise it could be over tomorrow.”
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