Michael Hussey

Michael Hussey

Personal information
Full name	Michael Edward Killeen Hussey
Born	27 May 1975 (1975-05-27) (age 34) Morley, Western Australia, Australia
Nickname	Mr. Cricket, Huss
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm medium
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	Australia
Test debut (cap 393)	3 November 2005 v West Indies
Last Test	4 December 2009 v West Indies
ODI debut (cap 150)	1 February 2004 v India
Last ODI	8 November 2009 v India
ODI shirt no.	48
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1994 –	Western Australia
2001 – 2003	Northamptonshire
2004	Gloucestershire
2005	Durham
2008	Chennai Super Kings (IPL)
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	44	126	227	318
Runs scored	3,453	3,623	19,378	10,197
Batting average	52.31	54.07	53.23	45.11
100s/50s	10/17	2/27	51/88	11/77
Top score	182	109*	331*	123
Balls bowled	180	210	1,620	756
Wickets	2	2	22	20
Bowling average	51.50	96.50	39.77	39.35
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	1/3	1/22	3/34	3/52
Catches/stumpings	39/–	73/–	244/–	166/–
Source: CricketArchive, 5 December 2009

Michael Edward Killeen Hussey (born 27 May 1975, Morley, Western Australia) is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket.

Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective formats, with 15,313 first-class runs before making his Test debut.^[1] However, he has had a highly successful international career, being the top-ranked ODI batsman in the world in 2006.^[2] He plays first-class cricket as vice-captain of the Western Warriors in Australia and has played for three counties in England. He also plays in the Indian Premier League for the Chennai Super Kings, although he opted out of the 2009 season. He is currently the only player in the history of cricket to average over 50 in both International Test and One Day cricket.

Pre-Test career

Hussey initially played for his native Western Australian Warriors, and his career total of 6471 runs ranks eighth in the list of that state's run-makers in the Sheffield Shield. He then moved to England, where in July 2001 he scored an unbeaten 329 (a Northamptonshire club record) at Wantage Road in his side's 633 for six declared on the way to a 10-wicket victory. He later captained Northamptonshire. In August 2003 he surpassed his own Northamptonshire record, when he scored 331 not out against Somerset at Taunton.

When Hussey was playing for the second-string national team, Allan Border once jokingly suggested he get match practice by staying in the nets for a full six hours; to his astonishment, Hussey went on to do just that.^[3] Hussey started out as a right-handed batsman but turned himself into a left-hander as he is greatly inspired by Border.

International career

Hussey earned a Cricket Australia contract in 2004–05 after excelling in the ING Cup. Statistically, Hussey's international career has been very successful, with his career batting average in tests being 55.29 as of April 2009 (and between 2006 and 2008 hovering between 75 and 85) and in ODIs 54.72. His Test average is among the highest of contemporary batsmen. He is currently second on the list of best averages ever in ODI cricket.

He is a very occasional medium pace bowler, bowling only 28 overs in his Test career, 23 of them in 2008. He is brought into the attack usually to give the pace bowlers a rest, although he was once brought on in India to stop Ricky Ponting getting a one-match ban for a slow over rate. On December 28, 2008, Day 3 of the Boxing Day test, he got his first test wicket, Paul Harris caught by Mitchell Johnson. He ended with figures of 1/22. He has taken two wickets in one-day internationals.

He was part of Australia's 2007 ICC World Twenty20 squad which was knocked out in the semi-finals. He played in all of Australia's matches, scoring 65 runs with a best of 37 before injuring a hamstring, which prevented his participation in Australia's tour of India that followed.

Tests

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Hussey's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of his past 10 innings (blue line).

Hussey made his Test debut at the Gabba in Brisbane on the 3rd November 2005, as a replacement for fellow Western Australian batsman Justin Langer in the Australia vs. West Indies series. In the first innings Hussey managed only one run, caught by Denesh Ramdin off the bowling of Daren Powell. In the second innings Hussey turned in an unimpressive 29. In the following Test, at Bellerive Oval (Tasmania) he scored 137 and 31* and was named man of the match. In the third Test at Adelaide Oval, Hussey was moved down the order to number five to accommodate the return of Langer. He made 133 not out in the first innings and 30 not out in the second, bringing his Test average to 120.

Since being moved down the order, Hussey has proved invaluable to the Australian team, often building impressive partnerships with the tail-end batsmen, the most impressive being a 107-run 10th-wicket partnership with Glenn McGrath in the second Test in South Africa's 2005–06 tour of Australia. Hussey continued his remarkable batting with tail-enders against Bangladesh in their Spring 2006 2-Test series when he and Jason Gillespie (as a nightwatchman) put together a 320-run partnership, with Hussey making a career-best 182.

On April 18, 2006 Hussey set a record as the fastest player in terms of time to reach 1,000 Test runs.^[4] He reached the milestone in just 166 days.

Hussey was the fastest player to reach the top 10 of the LG ICC cricket ratings. He maintained an exceptional average of 105.25 in the 2006-07 Ashes series, which Australia won 5–0.

Hussey (far right) in the slips cordon against India in the 2nd Test at the SCG in 2008

In the second Test of the 2006–07 Ashes, Hussey made 91 before he was bowled (playing on) by Matthew Hoggard and fell nine runs short of his fifth Test century. In the second innings Australia was chasing 168 off 35 overs for victory for a chance to go 2–0 up in the series. After the fall of two early wickets, Ponting and Hussey, who was promoted to No. 4 instead of Damien Martyn, formed a steady partnership to guide Australia to victory. Ponting fell on 49 but the battle was well over. Hussey scored the winning runs and made 61 not out from 66 balls. His partner, Michael Clarke, scored 21 not out. ^[5].

On December 16 Hussey scored 103 runs off 156 balls—his fifth Test century—on the third day of the third match of the series at the WACA Ground in Perth.

On January 6, 2007 after Australia's 5–0 Ashes whitewash, Justin Langer anointed Hussey to be the next leader of the team's victory song Under the Southern Cross I Stand.

In the first Test of the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy against Sri Lanka, Hussey scored his sixth Test century with a score of 133 runs off 249 balls. He was also part of a record-breaking fourth-wicket partnership with Clarke. Their 245-run partnership is the third-highest partnership for Australia against Sri Lanka in Test matches. In the following match of the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy, Hussey scored his seventh Test century with a score of 132 and following it up in the second innings with 34 not out.

On the January 6, 2008, at the SCG, Hussey scored his eighth Test century against India. This was the first time he scored more than 50 runs at that ground. He ended up not out on 145, before Ponting declared. However, in the first innings of the next Test he scored his Test first duck.

Hussey claimed his first Test wicket against South Africa on the third day of the 2008 Boxing Day Test at the MCG, when Paul Harris skied a ball over Mitchell Johnson's head and the latter ran back and took a running catch as the ball fell down past his shoulder.

Hussey played in all five of Ashes Test matches in England in 2009, scoring 276 runs in 8 innings. This gave him an average of 34.5. This included a century in Australia's second innings in the Fifth and final Test at The Oval where he scored 121, potentially saving his Test career after a long run without a century. He also scored two half centuries at Lord's in the Second Test, which England won, and in the Third Test at Edgbaston, which ended in a draw. He also took five catches in the field.

In the first Test of the Frank Worrell Trophy against the West Indies in 2009 at the Gabba, Hussey took his second Test wicket after Dwayne Bravo hooked a short ball straight to deep backward square leg which was caught comfortably by Ben Hilfenhaus.

One-day internationals

Hussey bowls in the Adelaide Oval nets, January 2009.

Hussey debuted for the Australian One-day team against India on February 1, 2004 at his home WACA ground in Perth. In this match Hussey made 17* helping Australia win the match by five wickets.

In the third Super Series match on October 9, 2005, Hussey became the first person to hit the roof of the Telstra Dome (the ICC World XI's Makhaya Ntini was the bowler in this case). On February 6, 2006, he tied with Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee on 22 votes for the Australian One-Day Player of the Year at the annual Allan Border Medal presentation. However, Symonds was ruled ineligible after an alcohol-related indiscretion, and after Lee and Gilchrist were eliminated on countback, Hussey was named the outright winner. Hussey had also come second overall in the Allan Border medal his first year in international cricket. On November 3, 2006, Hussey became the ICC's ODI Player of the Year at the annual ICC Awards in Mumbai. He was also named in its World ODI XI in 2006 and as 12th man in 2007.

Many tip Hussey to be the next ODI and Test captain of Australia^[6][7][8] and on 18 September 2006, owing to Australia's rotation policy, and in Ricky Ponting's absence, Hussey captained Australia for the first time in the DLF Cup second round match against West Indies at Kuala Lumpur. Australia lost the game by three wickets, but Hussey and Brad Haddin put together a sixth-wicket partnership of 165, a world record for that wicket in all ODIs. ^[9]

In the 2007 Commonwealth Bank Triangular Series, Australia were in trouble while chasing a target against England, and in a later match New Zealand. Both times Hussey guided the Australians to victory, and on both occasions was the only recognised batsman at the crease at the end of the match.

Hussey led Australia in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy after selectors rested captain Ricky Ponting and vice-captain Adam Gilchrist. The first match against New Zealand saw a 10-wicket loss, the first time Australia had lost by this margin in their one-day international history, although Hussey top scored with 42 off 96 balls. Hussey's record as captain was further marred when Australia lost the top place in the ODI rankings to South Africa for the first time since they were introduced in 2002 after losing to New Zealand two days later. Hussey top-scored for Australia with an aggressive 105 off 84 before another loss in the final match left him with a captaincy record of four losses from four matches.

Hussey in the field in the Third Test against South Africa at the SCG in January 2009

In early 2007, Hussey had a major slump in form with an average of only eight in over 10 innings, which scarcely improved in the World Cup where he gained an average of 17.4 with 87 runs. However, this was also due to a lack of opportunities to bat because of Australia's top-order dominance.

In the fourth ODI in the Commonwealth Bank Series played at the MCG on February 10, 2008 against India, Australia's top order and middle order collapsed, which saw Hussey come in at 5/72 with the side in deep trouble. He made a 53-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Brett Lee (which was the highest partnership of the innings) until Lee fell to Pathan. Hussey batted through the rest of the innings, making an unbeaten 65 off 88 being the only Australian to really contribute to the poor total of 159.

In the first ODI of the 2008 Bangladesh ODI series, Hussey top-scored with 85 and received the man-of-the-match award. This coincided with his rise to second in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI player rankings.

"Mr Cricket"

Hussey has the nicknames Huss, The Huss and Mr Cricket, the last due to his encyclopaedic knowledge of his sport. He dislikes the nickname finding it "a bit embarrassing".^[10] There is conjecture over who is responsible for giving him the name, with the suggestion that England's Andrew Flintoff is the man who came up with it and, more recently, the suggestion another English cricketer, Alec Swann, is to blame.^[11] The soubriquet appeared on the back of his shirt in the Twenty20 international against South Africa in 2006, in which all the players displayed their nicknames. During the 2007 Twenty20 against England, however, he was seen with Huss on his shirt instead, further suggesting he is fed up with the tag Mr Cricket. Nevertheless, the nickname features prominently in his television ads for the national real estate chain L.J. Hooker.

Personal life

Hussey is married to Amy and has three children. His younger brother, David, is also a professional cricketer who plays for Victoria, Nottinghamshire, Kolkata Knight Riders and Australia.

Indian Premier League

He also plays for the IPL team Chennai Super Kings, and he became only the second batsman to score a century in the competition, after New Zealand's Brendon McCullum.

Hussey chose to play for his Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings instead of his Australian state side Western Warriors in the inaugural Champions Twenty20 League although the 2008 event was eventually cancelled and neither side qualified in 2009.

He said of the move: “It has not sat comfortably with me, and I agonised over that decision for quite some time, But it sort of came down to three or four different reasons.

“I played for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL in the first four games and helped them to qualify for the Champions League, so I sort of feel an allegiance towards them in that respect.”

“Also, I have never played a Twenty20 game for the Western Warriors and hence didn’t help them achieve the Champions League status. I think I would be taking away the place of a young Western Australian to be able to play in the tournament which should be a very exciting tournament to be involved in. I also believe that the Western Warriors will be financially rewarded by allowing me to play for the Chennai Super Kings.^[12]

He missed the 2009 season for two reasons. During the first half of the tournament he had national duty as Australia took on Pakistan in the UAE and after that he opted for a rest.

Endorsements

In August 2007, Hussey became brand ambassador for the Canada-based games publisher Gamebience. According to the Gamebience's press release, the company has acquired his exclusive rights whereby he will endorse its products, including Cricket Life 08.

Test Centuries

One Day International Centuries

Notes

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References

• Super Series 2005 - Australian Squad from Cricinfo

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Hussey

• Player Profile: Michael Hussey from Cricinfo

v • d • e Australia squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup (4th title) 8 Clark · 11 McGrath · 14 Ponting (c) · 17 Hodge · 18 Gilchrist · 23 Clarke · 25 Johnson · 28 Hayden · 31 Hogg · 32 Tait · 33 Watson · 48 Hussey · 57 Haddin · 58 Lee · 59 Bracken · 63 Symonds · Coach: Buchanan

v • d • e Western Australia squad – Current Squad 1 Davis · 2 M Hussey · 3 Dorey · 4 Mangan · 5 Behrendorff · 6 Knowles · 7 Doropoulos · 8 Heal · 9 Bandy · 10 M Marsh · 13 Coulter-Nile · 16 Coetzee · 17 Magoffin · 18 Towers · 20 S Marsh · 21 Stoinis · 22 Robinson · 24 Porter · 24 Branston · 25 MG Johnson · 26 North (c) · 28 Edmondson · 29 Noffke · 31 Hogan · 32 Voges · 33 MA Johnson · 34 Ronchi · 36 Pomersbach · Coach: Moody Note: the Western Warriors website lists both Branston and Porter as wearing squad number 24.