(England)
Former England captain, Nasser Hussain was born on 28 March 1968 at Madras (now Chennai). His parents having settled down in Essex, England, he grew up wanting to represent England in international cricket. A stylish right-handed batsman, he is considered to be one of England's finest captains of all time. Hussain made his test debut in 1989-90 against the West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica and his one day international debut against Pakistan at Nagpur in the Nehru Cup of 1989-90. He was awarded the OBE in 2001, having been nominated Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2001.
Hussain had many chinks in his batting armour, not the least of them being too stiff in his stance. His selection to the England side was the result of a dearth of good, reliable middle order batsmen in the team, and he took advantage of the call up to cement his place in the squad struggling for some recognition. In 96 tests, he scored 5,764 runs at an average of 37.18, with 14 hundreds, 33 fifties and a highest score of 207. In 88 ODIs, he scored 2,332 runs at an average of 30.28 and only one hundred.
As a captain, Hussain was par excellence. He took over from Alec Stewart in 1999 and suddenly lifted the England test performance to dizzy heights, winning four series in a row. Though he fared badly against the mighty Australians, losing two consecutive Ashes series, he was an imaginative and inspirational captain. He however decided to abdicate his one-day captaincy after the disastrous World Cup of 2003, and then gave up the England captaincy all together after the series against South Africa. After a successful tour of the West Indies and a hundred against the touring New Zealanders at Lord's in 2004, Hussain, who was now clearly getting tired of international cricket, called it a day.
|