SYDNEY — Cricketers and officials from around Australia began converging on the small town of Macksville, New South Wales for the funeral of Phillip Hughes as the impact of his untimely death on the international game unfolded Tuesday. Hughes, who would have been 26 at the weekend, died last Thursday from a catastrophic injury caused by a ball striking him in the back of the head during a domestic match, triggering a huge outpouring of grief in Australia and around the world. Some 5,000 people are expected for the funeral at 2 p.m. local time (0300 GMT) Wednesday in the small coastal town halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, where Hughes grew up on a farm producing bananas and beef. Australia skipper Michael Clarke will be one of the pallbearers and will lead tributes at the funeral, Cricket Australia announced. The funeral will be attended by the Australian Test squad as well as past and present luminaries of the game including Mark Taylor, Sir Richard Hadlee, Brian Lara, Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri, Shane Warne, Mike Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath. Prime Minister Tony Abbott is also due to attend the service at which Clarke, who was by Hughes' bedside as he lay stricken in a Sydney hospital, will speak in tribute and join family members and fellow Australia batsman Aaron Finch as a pallbearers. Cricket Australia has re-jigged the schedule with the series now getting underway in Adelaide next Tuesday but is aware that even that might still be too soon for some players. Chief Executive James Sutherland said CA would be understanding of players who still feel uncomfortable about playing next week. “There's a funeral tomorrow, let's just understand that's going to be difficult enough as it is,” he told reporters at Sydney Airport on his way to Macksville. “I'd encourage everyone to give players their space and let them in their own way work through that. “It's absolutely up to the individual (whether they play), and any player that is not comfortable or doesn't feel right, or there is medical advice that it is not quite right, we will obviously understand that.” Pace bowler Ryan Harris later said he was not sure he would be emotionally ready to bowl in Adelaide. “Tomorrow is the day we are thinking about. In the back of our mind is Tuesday and we have got to do what we can to try to prepare for that,” he told reporters in Brisbane. “I'm still thinking about it and I'm not sure, see how we go tomorrow, I guess. But this is tough for some boys and it is going to be tough for me. I will have to work it out when I get to Adelaide and see how we all feel. “The boys who were there who witnessed what happened I can't speak for them because I can't imagine what they are going through.” Sutherland said consideration had been given to cancelling the Brisbane Test, which is worth some A$20 million ($16.97 million) to Cricket Australia and will now be squeezed between the Adelaide and Melbourne Tests from Dec. 17-21. In another tweak to the schedule announced Tuesday, the venues for Australia's ODIs against England on Jan. 16 and Jan. 18, which will also serve as World Cup warm-ups, have been switched with Sydney now hosting the former and Melbourne the latter. Sutherland also expressed sympathy for India's players, whose preparations for the series have been severely disrupted after the cancellation of one of their two warm-up matches last week. A match against a Cricket Australia-XI has now been scheduled for Thursday and Friday at Glenelg Oval in Adelaide. “It will be a sad day, as every funeral is,” Hughes's manager James Henderson told reporters in Macksville. “But it will also be a wonderful celebration of a young man who achieved so much in 26 years of life.” — Agencies
