Cricket: How Hughes hashtag began

Just some of the responses to the #PutOutYourBats social media campaign. Photo / Getty

A worldwide outpouring of grief for Phillip Hughes was sparked by a simple gesture from a Sydney family man.

Minutes after the cricketer's death was announced last week, Paul Taylor took to Twitter with a photo of his bat and cap resting against his front door, affixing the hashtag #PutOutYourBats.

The message, later sent to and disseminated by various media outlets, struck a chord among both the cricketing fraternity and sports fans all over the globe. More than 179,000 tweets with the hashtag have been sent in just seven days, with 96,000 photos similar to Taylor's shared on Twitter and Instagram.

Explaining how the social media phenomenon was conceived, Taylor said the tribute was a humble way of expressing the grief he was feeling over the passing of Hughes, who was killed after being struck by a bouncer.

"Overcome with sadness, knowing that there were a whole lot of cricketers feeling the same way, how do we convey our emotions?" Taylor told Australian website EFTM. "So I took a photo and placed it on Twitter with the hashtag. It was just a simple thing to say, this is a sad day, this is how I'm feeling."

Judging by the overwhelming response, Taylor was far from alone. While Taylor had only 14 followers at the time, his gesture was replicated by accounts belonging to Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and Arsenal Football Club, along with cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Viv Richards and Adam Gilchrist.

"I still cannot fathom that this has happened. This was just a hashtag and an expression of sadness," Taylor said. "That it has been the enabler for so many others to do something is very humbling.

"At first I was embarrassed at the attention but now, after it has sunk in, I am proud in a way. That in a time of sorrow, I did something that mattered."

Taylor had declined requests for interviews until after Hughes' funeral and, now he has allowed some attention to highlight his efforts, the IT worker stressed that he remain a periphery figure.

"Our thoughts must not deviate from Phillip Hughes and Sean Abbott - they must be our focus at this time," he said. "This is a time for all cricketers near and far to remember Phillip Hughes, and the game we grew up with.

"It was not until after it sank in and after many requests for interviews that I decided that perhaps I should speak out. But I did not want to take away focus from what is a terribly tragic accident."