I'm so sorry I called England's batsmen cowards. As Phillip Hughes' 悲劇の death showed, 直面するing 急速な／放蕩な bowlers takes real bravery

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I sat in the stands and watched Phillip Hughes make his Ashes debut at Cardiff, in むちの跡s, in 2009.

He was only 20, but （機の）カム with a big 評判 after a brilliant series in South Africa.

He opened the batting and 敏速に 開始する，打ち上げるd into Stuart 幅の広い and Jimmy Anderson with a 一連の savagely 削減（する） 境界s.

Scroll 負かす／撃墜する for ビデオ?

It seems unfathomable that a wonderfully fearless talent like Phillip Hughes could die 直面するing the exact 肉親，親類d of short ball, pictured, he’d spent his entire career gleefully 粉砕するing to the 境界

He may have been only half the size of his prede cessor Matthew Hayden but he had just as much 侵略.

As the BBC live 報告（する）／憶測 for the day said: ‘Hughes has a technique that looks like it’s been honed 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセスing off 気が狂って with a machete, which might be because he spent his 青年 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセスing off 気が狂って with a machete.’

Then Freddie Flintoff （機の）カム の上に bowl and tore into the young whipper-snapper.

Three 連続した vicious bouncers, all over 90mph.

Hughes ducked, bobbed and weaved his way through the 猛攻撃.

At which point, Freddie gave Hughes a loud mouthful of ‘friendly advice’ and the youngster 答える／応じるd with a 広大な／多数の／重要な big cheesy grin.

Phil Hughes, pictured, was yet another 堅い, unshaven Aussie 戦う／戦いing bruiser who was going to give the Poms just as good as they gave him

The （人が）群がる loved it.

This was 実験（する） cricket at its 競争の激しい best.

Next over, Hughes slapped Freddie for a 4, then nicked one to the ‘keeper and was out for 36.

But he’d made his 示す.

Here was yet another 堅い, unshaven Aussie batting bruiser from the Waugh/Ponting/Clarke mould who was going to give the Poms just as good as they gave him ? and have a 広大な／多数の／重要な time doing it.

I thought 支援する to this innings when I heard the awful news that Phillip Hughes had died playing the game he loved.

For anyone like me who loves cricket, this was a moment of desperate shock and sadness.

It seems unfathomable that a wonderfully fearless talent like him could die 直面するing the exact 肉親，親類d of short ball he’d spent his entire career gleefully 粉砕するing to the 境界.

But die he did, and his death 誘発するd the g reatest outpouring of 全世界の grief and 嘆く／悼むing for a cricketer that I can ever 解任する.

I don’t mind admitting that I’ve shed a 涙／ほころび or two in the past few days for Phillip Hughes ? 特に when I saw all the incredibly moving photos 地位，任命するd on social マスコミ with the 奮起させるd hashtag #putoutyourbats .

As an ardent cricket fan all my life ? I used to correspond with Sir Donald Bradman as a 十代の少年少女, and still treasure all the 手渡す-written letters he sent me ? I saw in him a young man who lived the very dream that I and so many others lived as a kid but never got to realise.

I’ve also 反映するd hard on the now 悪名高い stunt I 制定するd with Brett 物陰／風下 in the 逮捕するs at Melbourne’s MCG ground last December.

A stunt that former England captain マイク Atherton 述べるd as ‘disgraceful’ in a column this week about Hughes’ death.

It seemed like a bit of fun at the time.

Fed up with England’s pitiful Ashes 降伏する at the 残虐な 手渡すs of Mitchell Johnson, I berated our batsmen on Twitter for cowardice.

‘Reckon you could do better?” asked Brett.

‘Damn 権利,’ I idiotically 答える／応じるd.

A few days later, I was standing in the 逮捕するs in 前線 of a baying 暴徒 of thousands, many of whom were jovially 詠唱するing ‘Kill him, Binga!’

Channel 9 審査するd the 遭遇（する） live. Shane 警告する, Michael Vaughan and 示す Nicholas were there to com mentate.

Mitchell Johnson even appeared, along with the 残り／休憩（する） of the Aussie team, to watch.

‘Good luck mate,’ he told me, ‘you’re going to need it.’

I felt like Russell Crowe in Gladiator, only without the 技術 to を取り引きする what was about to come my way.

Brett didn’t 持つ／拘留する 支援する, bowling flat out from about 19, rather than the 合法的な 22 yards.

I don’t mind admitting that I’ve shed a 涙／ほころび or two in the past few days for Phillip Hughes ? 特に when I saw all the incredibly moving photos 地位，任命するd on social マスコミ with the 奮起させるd hashtag #putoutyourbats

Shane, who stood in the slips to Brett for 20 years, said afte rwards that he reckoned he was chucking them 負かす／撃墜する at 95mph.

He bowled me six balls, five of which were bouncers.

Four of them 攻撃する，衝突する me. The first 不正に bruised my wrist, another 粉砕するd into my hip, and two 攻撃する，衝突する the 味方する of my 支援する so hard that one of my ribs clean fractured.

I was 十分な of bravado for the cameras, walking 負かす／撃墜する the wicket after each sickening blow and 勧めるing him to ‘bring it on’ like I was Rocky Balboa.

But inside, I was in agony, and terrified. I didn’t see any of them, every ball was just a blur of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 flashing に向かって me.

I’ve played reasonably good 基準 club cricket in England since I was 14, and 直面するd a few 本物の quicks in my time. But this was on another level of hell altogether.

Somehow, I 生き残るd without really serious 傷害. More by luck than 裁判／判断, and some fancy footwork. (‘If you’d 支援するd any その上の away you’d have ended up in Sydney,’ 観察するd Sir Ian Botham.)

Brett was 十分な of 陳謝s later. I think he knew he’d got a bit carried away.

But he had nothing to apologise for; I was the one who’d 公然と branded England’s batsmen cowards, I was the one who brazenly 受託するd his challenge and egotistically 公約するd to ‘難破させる his 評判’, and I therefore fully deserved the painful come-uppance I received. (I was told the England team watched it in their dressing room, noisily 勧めるing Brett on…)

I also, if truth be known, loved the sheer adrenal ine 急ぐ of pitting myself against one of the world’s fastest ever bowlers. It’s a 広大な／多数の／重要な story for the grandchildren and something I never hesitate to 誇る about when I return to Newick Cricket Club in my old Sussex village.

So I don’t 悔いる doing it at all.

But ever since I heard the news about Phillip Hughes, I have regretted 告発する／非難するing England’s players of 存在 gutless.

There’s nothing 臆病な／卑劣な about 直面するing a 雷 急速な／放蕩な bowler.

It takes incredible courage to even go out there and try, however competent and 高度に trained you are.

I’ve also 反映するd hard on the now 悪名高い stunt I 制定するd with Brett 物陰／風下 in the 逮捕するs at Melbourne’s MCG ground last D ecember, pictured.?He bowled me six balls, five of which were bouncers. Four of them 攻撃する，衝突する me

Kevin Pietersen, the best England batsman of my lifetime, wrote in his 最近の 調書をとる／予約する about the 恐れる everyone in the team felt 直面するing Johnson in the first 実験（する） at Brisbane last November. ‘I was sitting there thinking, ‘I could die in the f***ing Gabbatoir. You very seldom hear people in your own team say they are 肉体的に 脅すd, but our batsmen were 脅すd.’

Kevin wasn’t happy about my Brett 物陰／風下 遭遇（する）. ‘He could have killed you,’ he said at the time.

I laughed then, but I’m not laughing now.

Phillip Hughes died in a freak 事故. I’m sure helmets will rightly be adapted to try and 妨げる it happening again, and everyone who plays the game will be far more 熱心に aware of the obvious dangers that come with 直面するing a hard cricket ball coming 急速な／放蕩な at your 長，率いる.

But cricket remains a comparatively 安全な sport and it would be 完全に wrong to 禁止（する） bouncers. The 対決 between 最高の，を越す class batsmen and 急速な／放蕩な bowlers, as we saw in Cardiff, is one of the greatest spectacles in the game.

I want to see Mitchell Johnson steaming in at our boys next summer, and I want to see them taking him on.

What you won’t be seeing is me 告発する／非難するing any England player of cowardice ever again.

I 借りがある them all a sincere and unreserved 陳謝, and I make it now.

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