Hussain - a captain of worth

So Nasser Hussain, England test captain, has finally called it a day. In truth, the decision he made after the World Cup earlier this year to leave aside the one-day reins only hastened his departure as the leader of the test side and the relative success of his successor, Michael Vaughan, has made it even more likely that the Hussain era would end sooner rather than later.

Hussain has presided over an England side which was sliding headlong towards the bottom of the world rankings and leaves four years later with the team in the upper half of the ICC table. He has been described as "England's best skipper since Mike Brearley" - praise indeed, and it certainly does compare favourably on a win-to-lose basis with anyone since those heady days under Brearley.

After Hussain's first series in charge (against New Zealand), England had sunk so low as to be rock bottom of all the test playing nations. Just 18 months later, his charges had achieved a feat which - thus far - even Australia have been incapable of.

The high point for England under Hussain was definitely the period leading up to March 2001 when the team won four successive test series - against Zimbabwe and the West Indies at home followed by unprecedented successive away victories against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The England side which played in Hussain's first game in charge was as follows :

Butcher, Stewart, Hussain, Thorpe, Ramprakash, Habib, Read, Caddick, Tudor, Mullally, Tufnell.

For the record, they managed a mere 126 against the Kiwis in the first innings yet won the match thanks to a remarkable undefeated 99 by Alex Tudor, coming in as night-watchman.

Injury frequently interrupted his test career - he describes his fingers as 'poppadoms' because of the number of fractures he has received - as early as his second test as skipper he was handing control over to Graham Thorpe.

Despite popular opinion, his batting average has not suffered particularly whilst captaining the side - 36.04 as opposed to 37.53 without the additional responsibility of leadership - but the years of responsibility appear to have taken their toll in other ways.

A passionate individual, he wears his heart very much on his sleeve. He was clearly hurt and let down earlier this year by what some perceived to be a breakdown in trust between himself and Tim Lamb at the ECB after a private row between Hussain and Malcolm Speed at the ICC over the 'Zimbabwe safety issue' became public knowledge.

When Hussain was berating the 'authorities' at the time, the more insensitive side of the British press came to the fore, repeatedly pressing him as to whether he planned to give up the captaincy at the end of the World Cup in both forms of the game. Hussain's reply was that '... the same authorities run both sides of the game'.

It is no surprise that the England and Wales Cricket Board were unable to dissuade him once he had finally made up his mind that Edgbaston 2003 would be his farewell appearance as captain. Once again, Hussain had done things his way - and who is to say that he is wrong?

For the record...
Under Brearley, England won 18 and lost just 4 out of 31 games.
Under Hussain as captain, England won 17 and lost 15 out of 45 games.
Of the games when Hussain played but did not skipper the side, England won 11 and lost 15 out of 39 games.

Eddie Sanders
Cricket Web
2003


Posted by Eddie