Kevin Pietersen: Phillip Hughes batted with a wonderful spirit, he was a key wicket for England. This is a sad and horrible time
Phillip Hughes was the kind of fellow player you always liked to keep an eye on from afar. I would always look out for his scores and hope he had made runs because he batted with a wonderful spirit and freedom. He made the absolute most of his ability and wanted to entertain the supporters by playing cricket in the positive style we all love to watch.
He did not have a classic batting technique but he was able to score runs in his own way. That takes incredible hard work, inner belief and mental toughness. I used to hear all the time from his Aussie mates what a good guy he was, how he was respectful and humble. It is a desperately sad day not just for cricket but for the whole of sport.
He burst on to the scene with those twin hundreds against South Africa in 2009, just a few months before we were due to play Australia in that summer’s Ashes series. He then went on to knock out hundred after hundred for Middlesex so we did a lot of work studying his technique before that 2009 series.
It was a breathless beginning to his career and when you have a start like that it is hard to maintain such a high standard. At such a young age it is tough to deal with that level of expectation but his form recently showed he was developing into a fantastic cricketer.
He was dropped a few times by Australia but he had taken that in his stride. He was a fearless player and I am certain he would have grown into a great Australian cricketer.
I know a lot of people were talking very positively about how he was developing his cricket. He was moulding his game to Test cricket. He batted beautifully, and responsibly, against us at Trent Bridge last year.
He was a dangerous player that you wanted to get out early because you knew if he stayed in for a whole session he would score quickly. Players like that can win Test matches in a short space of time with one devastating innings.
He dealt with the short ball every day of his career and he played it pretty well. He was a good hooker and puller of the ball so we would look at more conventional ways of dismissing him by bowling around the wicket to nick him off to the slip cordon, but you also knew the margin of error was so small. If you gave him any width at all he would carve the ball to the boundary. He would attack any error in line.
He was very quiet and respectful on the field. He used to stand at short leg or silly point, or run around at extra cover, but rarely would he say a word to the batsman. He just seemed like a lovely guy.
As batsmen we know the dangers. Cricket is a perilous sport. If you get hit on the head you know it is going to hurt. It can be incredibly intimidating at times to go to the crease knowing you will face a hostile spell of bouncers. It can be frightening if a player has any kind of problem against the short ball and as cricketers it is horrible to see people hit and go down hurt. But it is a part of the game that has been around for ages and you develop a coping mechanism.
I’ve been hit on the head a couple of times and it is not nice. Your head is the most vulnerable part of your body. If you get hit on the head it rocks your foundations. It is a hazard of the job. The bouncer is a big part of the game which is why it was brought back into one-day cricket. It makes the batters respect bowlers a little bit more.
But this is not the time to have a debate about banning bouncers or introducing new safety measures. It is time to let his family and friends have space for the healing process and grief.
The man who really needs our support at the moment is Sean Abbott. He needs a lot of strong people around him to encourage him to continue playing our great game and understand this was a freak accident.
I know Australians are strong characters. It is a great country. They are proud and look after their fellow Australians so I am sure Sean will receive lots and lots of help going forward. This is a sad and horrible time, but we need to encourage him to stay strong, and have a good career for Australia. It is what Phillip Hughes would have wanted.