By Vic Marks in Hambantota/The Guardian
The ECB have announced they have agreed to minor alterations to their schedule when they are in Sydney for the tri-series with Australia and India, which precedes the World Cup.
The most significant change, made in light of Philip Hughes’s death last week, is that the second ODI in Sydney will now take place on 16 January rather than two days later.
Brian Havill, the ECB’s acting chief executive, said: “I am grateful to the England players and management for agreeing to this switch, which allows Cricket Australia to rearrange their summer following the tragic death of Phillip Hughes. The ECB recognises that these are extremely difficult times for the Australian cricket community and were determined to help Cricket Australia, if at all possible, with their scheduling issues”.
Hughes’s funeral in Macksville, New South Wales, takes place today and will be attended by around 5,000 mourners but it is certain that all around Australia just about everyone will stop what they are doing. The funeral will be broadcast live on television by Channel Nine and by ABC radio and it is sure to capture the attention of an entire nation.
The Australian cricketing community will be there in full force, with the Test captain, Michael Clarke, a pallbearer as well as giving a tribute to his teammate during the service. The list of attendees reads like a Who’s Who of recent Australian cricket, with Mark Taylor, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and the Waugh twins the most familiar of many familiar figures.
There will be no official representation from the ECB at the funeral, though there will be someone in attendance at the State Memorial Service, the date of which has yet to be confirmed. However, two England players and former colleagues of Hughes are expected to attend, namely the Sydney-born Sam Robson of Middlesex and Nick Compton, who once shared a house with Hughes.
England’s cricketers will be setting off for the ground here for the third ODI against Sri Lanka soon after the funeral has finished in Macksville and there is no doubt that the ceremony will be on their minds. Steven Finn, who played alongside Hughes at Middlesex, spoke movingly about him on the eve of the match. “I got to know him relatively well,” he said. “It is a tragedy and I don’t think there is a cricketer in the world who has not shed a tear for Phillip over the last week.
“I only played with him for six to eight weeks at Middlesex and I played against him a fair amount, but he was an amazing guy. He is going to be sorely missed by lots of people because he touched so many people and I know that was the case at Middlesex.
“Everyone has been devastated by what’s happened. Everyone is still trying to come to terms with it. It still feels very surreal and on Wednesday everyone will step aside and think about him and pay their respects in their own way. I know everyone in the England dressing room will. It is important we do that because we’ve lost a great man.”
Sydney is a long way from Hambantota, but there was no doubting that Finn and his team-mates are emotionally raw after the events of the last week. There is no lip service going on. The Sri Lankans have also been stunned by the terrible accident to Hughes, but for a young team a very long way from home it may have been even more difficult to cope with.
