It had been less than 48 hours since the death of Hughes, after a bouncer hit him in the head at the SCG last week, but Maitland’s cricket com­munity took to the field on Saturday as a show of ­solidarity for the country kid from Macksville.

From first grade to under 10s, cricket players from Maitland wore black armbands and observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect for Hughes, who would have turned 26 yesterday.

“It warms the heart,” Maitland and District Cricket Association president Brian Hammonds said.

“It shows that Maitland does care and it was all played in the right spirit, results were irrelevant.”

Many cricket grounds around Maitland had 408 emblazoned onto the ground showing Hughes’ Test number, one the left-handed batsman may well have been wearing again during the upcoming series against India in Australia.

The Port Stephens Pythons’ scoreboard was changed to read Phil Hughes Forever.

At East Maitland Park the highlighted numbers were 408 and 63, the latter signifying the runs scored in Hughes’ final unbeaten dig.

There were at least two players, Northern Suburbs third grader Ben Saxby and Western Suburbs fifth grader Allan Hale, who retired on 63 in Maitland on Saturday afternoon.

In the first grade match at Robins Oval between City United and Western Suburbs, a round of applause was given to opener Karl Bowd when he reached the same score and players assembled on the pitch at 4.08pm for 63 seconds.

“It was a special day to be apart of,” City ­skipper Matthew Trappel, who has played against Hughes at representative level, said.

“It was a privilege to play and respect Phil in that way.”

At many venues bats were also left resting along fences with club caps hanging from the ­handle as part of the #putoutyourbats campaign on social media.

Many people had already taken part in the campaign at home including first grade player of the year Andrew Trappel, 14-year-old Maitland A-grade golf champion Clayton Small, Maitland Blacks 200-gamer Darren Mahony as well as former Mercury sports ­editors Greg French and Martin Walker.

There were Australian flags left at half mast, including at Maitland City Council chambers in High Street.

Further afield there were similar scenes in Newcastle cricket, which included Hughes’ former teammate and now Merewether-­paceman Mark Cameron.

At Port Macquarie up to 500 people gathered at Oxley Oval to form the numbers 408 and 63 for some spectacular overhead photographs.

In the Test between New Zealand and Pakistan, players left their playing caps on the sidelines and replaced them with training hats.

Little to no emotion was shown for gaining wickets or batting milestones.

In other sports, crowds at A-League matches on Friday stood and applauded in the 63rd minute, the Wallabies wore black armbands in their rugby Test against England at Twickenham and rowing clubs have left oars resting out the front of their sheds.

Australian footballer Tim Cahill, English Premier League club Manchester United, Channel 9, legendary performer Elton John and a lone bat on a Chicago street were also among the weekend tributes for Hughes.

Hughes’ funeral will be held at Macksville on Wednesday.

The first Test was due to start the following day, but has been postponed.