The Surfer

Indeed, it's almost as though Bishan never ceased playing. It might have been forty years ago, for example, but he recalled bowling to Barry Richards for the first time as though it were yesterday. Richards was then at his Himalayan peak; Bishan's Northants teammates, he recalled, built the encounter up to such a degree that he experienced a rare degree of apprehension, even nervousness. His plan became to wrong foot the batsman with close fielders: a slip, silly point, short mid wicket, leg slip. It got an immediate reaction. 'This will be interesting,' Richards said to the Northants keeper George Sharp. The South African came down the wicket to Bishan's first four deliveries and smashed them to the boundary. On the fifth, a little slower, a little shorter, he also advanced, but was beaten and stumped.

He drove 11 hours to Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world, with suicide in mind. "I'd had enough. I went to sleep in the gorge which the water falls into, wanting to never come back."The problem was the extreme noise. I was basically sleeping where the water fell in. It was like trying to sleep in a Laundromat with 20 washing machines going off. I slept for about three seconds. "I was ready to end my life, but Victoria Falls is quite an awesome place. It uplifted me a bit."

Of course, it's not going to be normal. We know that. But in our practice and our preparation we will try to mirror what we've done in the past and get back to doing things that we know we do well that will allow us to perform in a Test match. It's a tough scenario for all, and only time will tell how everyone handles it. I'm pretty confident the boys are getting there. And that they are undoubtedly in better shape now than they were a week ago. We've just got to make sure that we continue to do what it is we do well. And that we look after one another.

But it is precisely because this has not been a self-conscious act of leadership that Clarke has won the country's admiration and sympathy. In the past, he has been criticised for over-contrivance, acting with too much calculation of effect. What we have seen since November 25 has come straight from his heart, a part of the anatomy that Clarke's critics doubted was as warm as they wanted.

You would only be too happy for one of your daughters to marry someone like Phillip. He was respectful, he had all the values we respect in the Australian team. He looked after his mates, he was honest, thoughtful and caring. He was everything you want a young player to be ... I know you are not supposed to have favourites as coaches, but he was certainly one of mine and I think all the staff felt the same. His desire to get back into the side was second to none. He suffered a few setbacks in his career but he kept bouncing back. It was a joy to see the player he developed into.

For every ball in every game we've ever had to face,
A piece of that's been taken now and it's one we can't replace.
Besides the southern cross tonight, there shines an extra star,
A beacon that will find us and remind us who we are.

Whenever a sport suffers a tragedy, the journalists who cover it often write certain truisms - they point out that sport is only a game, that things have been "put into perspective"; above all, that perhaps spectators and opponents should show a little more respect to each other. It's clichéd, this type of piece, and perhaps it's clichéd for a reason - there's nothing fundamentally wrong with any of these points.

Yet, cricket was changing. It was becoming corporate. Many a politician from Modi, Jaitley, Pawar saw in cricket a parallel politics, with cricket coffers surfeit with currency. Money and power were temptations and when cricket became an extension of matka and the betting industry, I realised the tail was controlling the dog. Sadly media betrayed it. True there were the Tehelka investigations and yet one realised that the Shastris, the Boria Majumdars, the Harsha Bhogles were adding smartness without reflexivity.

Whenever Hughesy suffered adversity -- if he was replaced in the team or if he wasn't scoring as many runs as he wanted -- he never dropped his head, never once complained. If he had a tough conversation with a selector he would nod, agree he needed to work harder, grin because he felt bad for the person delivering the message and then get on with it.

Sean, when you feel like getting back on the horse mate, I promise you that I will be the first to strap on the pads and go stand up the end of the net to hit them back at you. It's exactly what Hugh Dog would want us both to do.

Their familial bond was forged in 2006 when - not far short of his 18th birthday - Hughes packed his cricket kit, transferred schools barely a month before he sat his HSC and moved from the rural sanctuary of Macksville into a two-bedroom flat in Sydney's inner-west.

Philip made a stunning start to his Test career when he scored a century in each innings against us in Durban and made a mockery of our game plans against him. He spent about ten hours happily slapping all the bowlers over gully while we thought we would have him caught in the slips. He earned our total respect. Nothing we bowled at him or said could shake his concentration, and it soon became clear that he was a bloody good bloke off the field, too.

This much we must believe, that Hughes' last thought simply was, here's four runs. Here's another step towards 100. Here's the Test door comng ajar again. That can and must be his family's consolation, that he died doing what he loved.