“I’m always going to pay tribute to my little mate”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Australia opener David Warner has announced that he was thrilled to have paid tribute to his friend and team-mate Phillip Hughes by scoring a century against India on the first day of the fourth Test in Sydney.

Hughes tragically passed away at the age of 25 when he was struck on the side of the neck by a bouncer during a Sheffield Shield match at the very same venue.

When Warner was on 63, he fell to his knees and kissed the ground since Hughes was on the same number of runs when he was hit by that fatal bouncer.

“It’s always going to be in the back of my mind and I’m always going to pay tribute to my little mate,” Warner said. “It was in the back of mind the whole time whether I was on 63 or 100, I thought it through that I wanted to pay tribute to my mate. Every time I play here I will definitely be doing that.”

Warner also revealed that he had tears in his eyes when he saw Hughes’ family in the stands.

“I had a tear in my eye when I walked out to warm up and I saw the Hughes family up in the stands,” he said. “It’s fantastic for them to be here. The hurt and the pain that they’ve gone through and how much it would have hurt them to come back today. It’s just courageous for them to be here today and I applaud them for making the effort to come.

“I was quite emotional at the singing of the anthems. The tributes put those memories back in place and seeing that little smile up on the big screen before going out to bat and singing the national anthem was quite hard.

“I had a minute to myself when we came back off and had my head in the towel and I had to dig deep to go out there and bat the way I know I can and try and clear my mind. But I got out there and got back on the horse.”