David Warner cried uncontrollably during first net session after Phil Hughes' death, claims Chris Rogers
Former Australian cricketer Chris Rogers became the latest cricketer to publish his autobiography, Bucking the Trend, earlier this week and has given cricket fans a sneak peek of what happened in the Australian dressing room.
Rogers, in his book, has made several revelations and the latest one is about the state of Australian players during the first net session after Phil Hughes' death. He revealed that his memories of David Warner crying uncontrollably was still fresh in mind.
Also read: Chris Rogers' recalls his fear of death after being hit on the head during the first Test against India in 2014
"My memory is often pretty poor and needed a lot of prompting for this book to be written, but I’ll never forget that training session," Rogers wrote. "The sight of Davey Warner walking out of his net after three or four slow throw downs from batting coach Michael Di Venuto to drop to his haunches and cry uncontrollably, and a fairly similar experience for Shane Watson, will live with me until the end of my days," he stated in his book.
Rogers recalled walking from the team hotel to a training ground in Adelaide's parklands with teammate Brad Haddin, who he claims, was still unsure if it was the right time to play. The batsman stated that many of the Australian players were not in favour of playing cricket immediately after Hughes' death but they had no choice as Cricket Australia was trying to please the BCCI by going ahead with the Test series.
Rogers stated that even someone like Mitchell Johnson, who was known to be aggressive on and off the field, couldn't deal with the fact that Hughes had died. He wrote, "Mitchell Johnson, who usually bowled almost as aggressively at his teammates as he did the opposition, could hardly let the ball go. And when he did accidentally bowl a shortish delivery, he was mortified."
"It wasn’t just these three but a significant number of us who were struggling. It was an eerie scene. Cricket had changed," he wrote.
Also read: I am still half-expecting a text from Phil Hughes, says Michael Clarke
The Australian left-hander said that the first net session ahead of the Adelaide Test match against India in December 2014 was the most traumatic one of his career. The batsman stated that he struggled to face even the most gentle of throw downs while bowlers turned away aghast whenever one of their deliveries dropped short.
He also revealed that he had bonded with Hughes during Australia’s tour of South Africa, where the opening batsman was suffering from loneliness.
His former Australian team-mates Michael Clarke and Brad Hogg have also released autobiographies recently, chronicling their lives and their tenure in the Australian team.