#putoutyourbats: Tributes pour in for Hughes

Players of all sports take time to honour his memory in different ways.

SHARJAH: Pakistan and New Zealand players and officials observed a minute’s silence yesterday and wore black armbands to join the world in mourning the death of young Australian batsman Phillip Hughes. Similar scenes were visible in the Bangladesh and Zimbabwe match in Dhaka.

Before heading out to the field yesterday, the New Zealand players placed their bats outside the team’s dressing with their national black caps on them to join the ‘#putoutyourbats’ campaign launched in Australia to pay tribute to Hughes.

Hughes played his last international match in the UAE, the third and final ODI against Pakistan in October, in which he made five.

Pakistan also followed suit when they came out to bowl, placing their bats outside the dressing room with their green caps on top of them.

Cricket bats were pictured leaning against front doors, stadiums and statues throughout the world as fans and players alike joined in the touching memorial a day after the 25-year-old’s death.

West Indies legend Viv Richards was among the cricketers to contribute, and Google Australia’s home page was decorated with the simple picture of a bat.

Previously anonymous Sydney cricket fan Paul D Taylor, who started the campaign, tweeted that he was ‘amazed and humbled’ by the response.

He politely said ‘thank you, but no thank you’ to media outlets requesting interviews, saying ‘#putoutyourbats isn’t about me’.

“It’s just a way for all cricketers to show their respects to Phillip Hughes,” Taylor wrote, under his Twitter handle @Squizabilly. “We’ve all played cricket in one way or the other. Backyard or beach cricket, no matter what level we’ve all grown up with a bat and ball. This is our way to connect and show our sadness.”

The other tributes

Tributes to Hughes, who died from head injuries on Thursday, two days after taking a ball to the head while batting, took place throughout the sporting world.

Flags flew at half-mast at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and local cricket teams around Australia and India paused to observe a minute’s silence for the Australian international.

Golf’s world number one Rory McIlroy, playing at the Australian Open in Sydney, had a black ribbon pinned to his cap.

Fans of Western Sydney Wanderers planned a minute’s applause at 63 minutes — Hughes’ score when he was struck down — of Saturday’s derby match against Sydney FC.

And Australia’s rugby team will wear black armbands when they play England at Twickenham on Saturday.

Tennis stars Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, and New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team were also among the large and diverse group to send their condolences. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2014.

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