Michael Hussey by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:

MEK Hussey

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DateLine: 27th April 2009

 

Bradmanesque in county cricket, Hussey was a less prolific and sturdier model in Australia and seemed likely to remain an unfulfilled international until the Langer-Hayden-Ponting triumvirate cracked after four years. A fractured rib to Justin Langer gave Hussey his break following 15,313 first-class runs, a record for an Australian before wearing baggy green, and during a barely believable Test introduction he accepted the apt nickname of Mr Cricket. He also owns the mark for the fastest player to 1000 Test runs after taking only 166 days to rub out the achievement of England's Andrew Strauss.

 

Back-to-back centuries against Sri Lanka at home gave way to a more mortal level, although his fighting 145 in the bitter Sydney Test against India helped Australia set up a tense victory. He headed to India for the return series late in 2008 with a thoroughly human Test average of 52 over the previous 12 months, although his career mark of 68.38 was still exquisite.

 

The first glitch in an extraordinary international career came in the one-day format leading up to the 2007 World Cup. His calm outlook, strong team qualities and ability to perform in most situations had helped earn him the captaincy for the Chappell-Hadlee Series, but it quickly became a tournament to forget with three big losses. At the World Cup his first four entries were single figures and he was not required to bat in either of the finals, finishing with 87 runs for the tournament. It was a rare ineffective period for such a focussed athlete.

 

Like Langer and Graeme Wood, his predecessors as left-handed Western Australian openers, Hussey is scrupulous at practice and has a tidy, compact style. Skilled off front foot and back, he is attractive to watch once set, which occurred regularly at Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Durham, where he set about rewriting century-old record-books. Reinventing himself in one-day cricket as an agile fieldsman and innovative middle-order bat with cool head and loose wrists, Hussey underlined his credentials when picked in the limited-overs squad to tour New Zealand in 2005, and achieved more outrageous figures when it took 29 matches for his average to drop below 100.