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SYDNEY. — The exact spot on the pitch, just outside the popping crease at the Randwick end, where Phillip Hughes lost his life was the exact spot where those who loved him most said goodbye.One by one, they came to the middle of the SCG in fading light late on Thursday.

The first was Dave Warner.

He trudged out to the centre shortly after the inevitable word had filtered through that medical staff at St Vincent’s hospital had turned off Hughes’ life support.

He sat on his haunches, crouched on the same patch where a seemingly innocuous bouncer had stung Hughes in the side of the neck on Tuesday afternoon.

Warner had been one of the first to him, and the one to hold his hand in the medicab as he left the field, and then the one who had been in tears as he left the SCG.

Soon after that, came Sean Abbott – the young fast bowler who had sent down the delivery and who a nation now wants to embrace as tightly as the Hughes family.

The New South Wales teammates were there for 20 minutes, and after them the solemn march started.

Out came Hughes’ mother, Virginia, his sister, Megan, and brother, Jason.

Then players and coaches, past and present, from NSW and Australia who have flown in from every corner of the country, made their way out through the gate of the iconic Members pavilion and to the middle to pay their respects.

The last of them was Michael Clarke.

According to those who were there, the Australian captain stood in spitting rain, with his head bowed.

Clarke stood there longer than anyone. Nobody knows how long. It was a long time, though.

He has been acclaimed from those within Cricket Australia for being a rock for the Hughes family, and his own teammates. But now comes the skipper’s time to grieve. Who cares about a sore back when you’ve got a broken heart?

In the past two days since Hughes’ death, the home dressing room and the Members pavilion has become a shrine to the laconic kid who was supposed to be turning 26 on Sunday.

The SCG Trust has handed the keys to this sacred place to his mates for as long as they want.

On Wednesday afternoon, his former NSW teammates had seen him in intensive care, then retired to a nearby pub, but were then drawn back to the home dressing room.

The sheds are supposed to be happy places where victories are savoured. Or where sorrows after drowned. Right now, it’s a place of abject sorrow.
It remains unclear when they will play cricket here again.

There’s supposed to be another Sheffield Shield match, against Queensland, starting on December 5.

Yet there’s a murmur they mightn’t play here until the Sydney Test out of respect.

Just as every member of the crowd is implored to wear pink on day three to celebrate Jane McGrath and support breast cancer research, there are already suggestions the first day crowd early next year could wear yellow – in honour of Hughes and because his father, Greg, is a banana farmer on the NSW mid-north coast.

Every member of the Australian cricket team was at the SCG again first thing on Friday morning, including Clarke and Warner.

They don’t know whether they will play in the Test match against India in Brisbane next Thursday. They haven’t even had the discussion, officials say.

Should they play or not? Nobody has the right to tell a man how he should grieve.

“And they’re grieving,” weary Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland told the media pack outside the SCG yesterday.

“They’ve lost someone who is incredibly close to them.”

The previous night, there had been some lighter moments as the Members Long Bar filled with devastated family and friends and teammates.

They included former captain Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Craig McDermott, Simon Katich, Stuart Clark and Stuart MacGill.

“There were some great stories being told,” said Sutherland, “and quite a lot of laughter about the cheeky little boy who came down from Macksville and had the highest ambitions for himself and his cricket game.

He will always be remembered.

“Over the last few days, cricketers from all over the country have gathered here in Sydney to hope and pray for Phillip, and to support his family and friends. Unfortunately, last night, they all had to gather here at the SCG to reflect on Phillip and what had just happened. It was a sad and quiet occasion, but it was a memorable one.”

NSW Origin coach Laurie Daley was also there, comforting the Hughes family.

On Tuesday morning, Daley had texted Hughes and assured him he’d make a hundred for South Australia against NSW.

He was in the stands for the morning session, as Hughes started to amass what looked like a big score.

They spoke at the lunch break, with Daley telling him he’d come back to the SCG to see him bat again the closer he came to his hundred.

It was the last time he saw him alive.

The daughter of NSWRL’s chief executive Dave Trodden is in a relationship with Hughes’ older brother, Jason, who bats for Mosman.

When the NSW team based itself out of Coffs Harbour ahead of this year’s State of Origin series, the Hughes family from nearby Macksville was welcomed into the fold.

When the Blues broke Queensland’s eight-year stranglehold on Origin at ANZ Stadium in Sydney in game two, Phillip was a popular sight in the victorious rooms.

Only now are details emerging of how tough the past few days have been. Of how much fight Hughes put in. — Sydney Morning Herald