Paying tribune: Hughes’ bat to be placed atop Mount Everest

Cricket Australia trademarks the phrase ‘63 not out’.

MELBOURNE: Planning is under way to place a bat which once belonged to Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes on Mount Everest in a tribute to the batsman who died last month, said an official yesterday.

The death of Hughes, 25, from a head blow sustained while playing a domestic match at the Sydney Cricket Ground stunned the sports world and triggered an outpouring of grief.

Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards said yesterday that the Cricket Association of Nepal had proposed the Everest idea.

After Hughes’ death, bats were left outside the front doors of homes in Australia and around the world and a spontaneous #putyourbatsout campaign received a massive response with thousands posting pictures of bats on Twitter.

Edwards also told a Boxing Day Test lunch there were plans for a 63-over game to be played in Nepal as part of the tribute to Hughes who was 63 not out when he sustained the fatal injury, Australian Associated Press reported.

“So although we enter the festive season with heavy hearts, the community’s response has been comforting and in many ways uplifting,” said Edwards in Melbourne.

In another development, a report said yesterday that Cricket Australia has trademarked the phrase ‘63 not out’ to prevent people from cashing in on the death of the batsman.“Cricket Australia registered the trademark in conjunction with Phillip’s management purely as a defensive registration to prevent others trying to exploit Phillip’s memory,” a CA spokesman told The West Australian.

“There was some evidence of that starting to occur which is why we have taken this action.”

The West Australian said unlicensed Hughes merchandise is being sold by online auction sites including t-shirts, stickers and memorial trophies.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th,  2014.

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