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Friday 28 November 2014

Summer of tears instead of cricket

Rest in peace Phillip Hughes
with sincere sympathy, thoughts and prayers to your family, friends and fellow players.

Aussies love our cricket. One of the first presents a baby boy is likely to receive is a miniature cricket bat. Favourite childhood memories might well revolve around games in the local park, or on the beach, with boys and girls of all ages and sizes yelling “Howzat!” and dreaming of one day wearing a baggy green cap. Our heroes include Allan Border and Steve Waugh and “the Don” - the immortal Sir Donald Bradman, whom, legend tells, spent his boyhood honing his skills by hitting a cricket ball against a wall with a cricket stump.
In the long hot Australian summertime, cricket keeps us sane, a glorious distraction, the white clad players the epitome of coolness under pressure. Strangers meeting for a brief time will ask, “how’s the cricket going today, have you heard?” Cricket is noted for its fair play and sportsmanship. Anything else is "just not cricket."
No family barbeque is quite complete without somebody grabbing a bat and encouraging everyone from grandparents to toddlers and the family dog to run off the effects of over-indulgence. What an anticlimax Boxing Day would be if it weren’t for the chance to relax, eat leftovers and enjoy the traditional Boxing Day Test.
But this season is unlike any other.
We learned that life can change in a moment, in a single, heart-wrenching freak accident.
All over Australia people are standing their cricket bats and caps outside their doors, a tribute of love and respect and solidarity.
In a little while, we’ll pick them up again and play cricket with the kids and watch the Poms battle for the Ashes and shout “Howzat!” – because we know that these are the times that make memories and our kids deserve that.
For anyone who needed reminding, we learned this week to treasure those we love.

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