There are friends and then there are ‘best of friends’, who better than Michael Clarke and Lt. Philip Hughes to demonstrate it. Hughes succumbed to death in 2014 after he was hit on the back of his helmet which, unfortunately, was open. It was a Sheffield Shield match played at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground. He may have passed away but his voice and memories still echo in his friend Michael Clarke’s mind. What friendship, enviable!
It has been more than two years, yet Michael Clarke has his dear mate, Phillip Hughes’ number saved in his cell phone—astonishing and so surreal and that too, in a world that is busy in getting one-up on each other. In fact, when Clarke got dismissed for the final time in Test cricket the time was 4:08 pm. Coincidentally, Hughes was the 408th player to wear the baggy green.
Clarke recently launched a book titled ‘My Story’, in which he claims that Hughes was the inspiration behind writing the book.
Speaking to sports journalist Boria Majumdar about the book and the inspiration, he said, “It’s still very emotional for me to talk about. The incident is one of the reasons for me to write the book. To get through that period, I spent that time writing it to show his family and the world how I feel. I feel it a big part of my responsibility to be Australian cricket captain and lead from the front for my teammate.”
About the phone number and his friend he said, “I still have his mobile phone number in my phone. It’s still very hard for me to fathom that he is no longer with us.”
Michael Clarke has also lauded the BCCI and the ICC handling of the DRS row well.
