I used to cart Phillip everywhere to play: Greg Hughes

Phillip Hughes' father says he ensured he accompanied his son for all his matches as a kid & later continued to follow him around the world as he loved to watch him play

The late Phillip Hughes shared a great relationship with his father Greg, who was not really his coach, but was always around for his matches. And Greg Hughes was there on Thursday too when family, friends and members of the cricketing fraternity gathered to bid a final goodbye to the 25-year-old Australian batsman, who succumbed to a head injury during a Sheffield Shield match in Sydney on Tuesday. A visibly shattered Greg was seen holding his sobbing wife Virginia as they left St Vincent’s Hospital on Thursday.

Test debutant Phillip Hughes with his father Greg after Australia beat South Africa at the Wanderers in March 2009. Pic/Getty Images.

Coincidentally, Tuesdays and Thursdays have played a significant part in Phillip’s growing years too. “Most kids probably went to their Tuesday and Thursday afternoon training sessions and that was it, but he (Phillip) couldn’t stop. He’s one out of the box,” Greg said, just before his son was picked to represent Australia for the first time in 2009, Brisbane Times reported.

A banana farmer from Macksville in New South Wales, Greg was always there to support his son’s rise in the cricket world. “When he was a kid, I used to cart him everywhere to play. I wasn’t going to put him on a bus and tell him, ‘off you go’. I just wanted him to enjoy it, and I wanted to be there with him if he wanted me there,” said Greg, who followed his son around the world to watch him play.

The doting father however, was always modest whenever anyone tried to credit him for Phillip’s success. “He deserves all his success. I didn’t do much. I just fed the (bowling) machine for him,” Greg said then.

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