Phillip Hughes: Tributes pour in for batsman

Tributes continue to pour in for Phillip Hughes, locally and across the world. Here is a summary of the day's major events.

• NSW Premier Mike Baird announced a state memorial service would be held at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The date would be arranged with the Hughes family.
• It was understood the Hughes family would hold a funeral service in Hughes' home town of Macksville on the mid-north coast.
• Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland spoke at the SCG and said a decision had not been made on whether to proceed with the opening test match against India next week.
• It was expected that memorial plans would influence whether the test goes ahead.
• The Australian Test team met in the SCG dressing rooms to grieve and discuss the future.
• Tributes poured in from around the world. Flags flew at half-mast at the SCG, on the Harbour Bridge on and Sydney Ferries.
• Cricket Australia recommended weekend club and school matches proceed as scheduled and encouraged players to pay tribute during the match.

We will end our live coverage here. Thank you for reading.

A state memorial service for Phillip Hughes will be held at the Sydney Cricket Ground, NSW Premier Mike Baird has announced.

The date of the service is yet to be advised but will be arranged with the Hughes family.

South Australian cricket chief Keith Bradshaw says he cannot predict when the Redbacks' "devastated" and "shattered" players will be capable of returning to training and playing in the aftermath of Phillip Hughes' death.

Saturday's grade-cricket matches in Adelaide were cancelled because of the distress caused by Hughes death on Thursday.

Bradshaw said players would process the grief in their own way and there was no way of knowing when things would be "back to normal".

"We're taking it hour-by-hour, day-by-day," he said.

"Cricket, everything else is just secondary at the moment to caring for our players, the family and all those people who have been involved."

Read the full story from Jesse Hogan in Adelaide.

Google has joined the long list of those paying tribute to Phillip Hughes with this addition to its Australian homepage.

Cricket Australia has encouraged the community to #putoutyourbats in honour.

Tribute: the Google Australia homepage.

The first round of the NSW Country Cricket Championships began today in Griffith. Players lined up in tribute to Phillip Hughes before play commenced.

About 200 players, friends and officials gathered Thursday night at the SCG to celebrate Phillip Hughes' life.

The party filled the front bar and spilled into the dressing room, while some guests roamed on to the pitch.

Officials described the hastily-arranged affair as informal and while there were many tears, there was just as many laughs.

"I think reflections last night were a little bit about what has happened in such a short space of time," Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said.

"But I also know there were some great stories being told and quite a lot of a laughter about the cheeky little boy from Macksville who had the highest ambitions for himself and his cricket game."

AAP

Homebush Boys High has paid tribute to its former student and "bushie boy" by dedicating a special bat and Homebush cap at an assembly on Friday morning.

Phillip Hughes attended in the school in 2006 when he arrived in Sydney. Principal Tim Jurd praised his "strength of character" and said he was an ideal role model for boys at the school.

The bat and cap have been laid in a prominent place at the front of the school, Mr Jurd said.

Read the full story here.

Cricket Australia has released a statement thanking the community for the "overwhelming amount of love and support" shown for Phillip Hughes and his family.

It recommended that club and school cricket games continue as normal this weekend and made suggestions for how players could celebrate Hughes' contribution to the sport.

One idea was for players to observe 63 seconds of silence following the toss. Hughes was on 63 not out when he was struck by the fatal ball.

Other suggestions included:

• extending Junior retirement rules to enable kids to retire on 63 not out rather than 50
• reducing two-day games to 63 overs each rather than the usual number of overs each side would receive
• writing his player number 408 on the outfield
• wearing a black arm band
• bringing both teams together after the match to spend a bit of extra time together
• wearing the number 408 on your sleeve or chest

Wanderers fan group the Red and Black Bloc will remain silent for 60 seconds at the 63rd minute of the A-League match between Western Sydney and Sydney FC at Parramatta Stadium on Saturday night, Herald sports editor Ben Coady reports.

Fairfax chief sports columnist Greg Baum explains why Phillip Hughes' death is the saddest day in Australian cricket history.

Others have died playing the game. Others have died playing other games. But no cricketer so high profile can have died so publicly, and in such grim circumstances. No sportsman's death can have come as such a shock.

Whether anyone has the stomach to play that match now, who knows? Whether the match even can or should be played, again, who can say? As Hughes' many devoted friends in cricket gathered – literally and in cyberspace – and huddled and hugged and wept and tried to find their bearings and failed, none looked remotely up for playing a match or watching one.

Read more here.

Phillip Hughes' death was particularly shocking for a relatively safe non-contact sport.

But any elite sport can pose significant risks. In cricket, a standard ball weighs 160 grams and can fly through the air at more than 130km/h

Here are ten cricketers who died after injuries sustained on the pitch, some eerily similar to Hughes.