Image: Cricket Australia

XtraTime Web Desk: Australian cricketers led by former captains Steve Smith and Michael Clarke paid rich homage to Phil Hughes who died on this day five years back. 25-year-old Hughes succumbed to death after fighting for three days after being struck by a bouncer from Shaun Abbott during a Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The bouncer from Abbott struck Hughes in an unprotected area just below his left ear, and collapsed to the ground immediately. He sustained a brain hemorrhage and died two days later without regaining consciousness at a nearby hospital.

“There hasn’t been a single day over these last five years when Phillip’s loss hasn’t been felt acutely by the Australian cricket family, Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts said Tuesday.

Hughes had played 25 test matches for Australia and 24 one-day internationals. He also spent several years playing county cricket in England. Cricket Australia hopes to enforce the use of neck protectors to avoid a repeat of what happened to Hughes.

Test batsman and former Australia captain Steve Smith was initially reluctant to wear the neck guard, saying it felt like he was restricted as if inside an MRI machine.

But after hitting 211 in one innings of the recent Ashes series while wearing the guard, Smith said he had changed his mind and would likely wear one in future. Cricket Australia hopes the use of the neck guard will eventually be made mandatory.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"We'll toast absent friends today, I'm sure" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/63notout?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#63notout</a> <a href="https://t.co/lHAjrNYBWL">pic.twitter.com/lHAjrNYBWL</a></p>— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) <a href="https://twitter.com/cricketcomau/status/1199577194105733121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/davidwarner31/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> David Warner</a> (@davidwarner31) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-11-26T21:44:08+00:00">Nov 26, 2019 at 1:44pm PST</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Remembering Phillip Hughes who was taken too soon on this day in 2014.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/63NotOutForever?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#63NotOutForever</a> <a href="https://t.co/8UHhvPvHBT">pic.twitter.com/8UHhvPvHBT</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1199477944831369217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Five years on, cricket world remembers Phil Hughes