Matthew Hayden in his book ‘Standing My Ground’
summed up Michael Hussey the best by calling him a cricket “nuffie”.
Whether it is on the field or off it, Mike
Hussey can’t live without cricket and cricket will never be the same without
Mike Hussey. His enthusiasm for the game
has always been there, right from junior club cricket to the international
arena.
Simon Katich is one cricketer, who has seen
Mr Cricket evolve right from childhood.
The pair struck up a partnership playing for the Swan district U’9s in
Perth. The pair eventually went on to
play 34 test matches together in the baggy green.
I had the privilege of meeting Simon Katich
on a few instances at corporate events in last five years and Katich had shared
a few stories about “Mr Cricket that I was able to note down.
Katich recalls “I first played together
when we were 9 and even in those early years I thought how hyper is Mike? He would be one of the first people at the
ground and he wanted to do everything from putting the cones out to knocking
the stumps in”.
“Even as he kid he was always more
enthusiasm that the others. During fielding he would want to chase the ball hit
on the off side even if he was fielding at mid on. The coach didn’t say it at
the time but I am sure he would have thought “Why can’t everyone be like Mike”.”
Over time as his career blossomed, Mike
Hussey would learn the trade of becoming an ultimate professional. Playing for Western Australia, Mike Hussey
would often study past scores and pick the brains of the coach so he knew about
the opposition bowlers. Mike always
wanted to be ready for the challenge from a young age. One of this greatest
attributes was to think about each and every ball.
Matthew Hayden backs up that theory in his
book when he says “we knew Hussey was a great thinker and feeler so when
we[Queensland] played against him Symo would often count out loud the number of
deliveries Hussey didn’t score off”. The
strategy would be a success and Hussey had a modest average against the
Queenslanders. It worked wonders for us early on but I’m sure such instances ensured
Mike Hussey was ready for test cricket.
When Hussey finally did make his test debut
at age 30, with over 10,000 first class runs not only was he mentally ready but
he had brought along all his cricketing rituals.
One of those rituals was his love affair
with cricket bats. I recall Simon Katich
mentioning an incident at a function when he said “Mike Hussey loved his
cricket bat so much that he would sleep with it throughout the cricket season”.
We only found out because apparently his mother had asked the other parents in
our teams if their kids did the same.
Matthew Hayden scripts it well in his book.
In the Australian dressing room there were plenty of bat lover’s like Ponting
and Langer, but Hussey was always one step ahead of them. While Ponting had a habit of picking up each
and every bat in the dressing room for the sake of it, Mike Hussey was so
obsessed getting the weight of this bat right he would travel with set of
scales.
At his retirement press conference he
stated time away from home was one of the factors he will be walking away. Katich joked and said, “when Huss retires you
have to feel for his wife and the kids because he would never sit still at home
and I can see him juggling balls or just walking around the house with a bat”
As he prepared for his last test match
there was no evidence of his enthusiasm declining at the final training session,
he was the first out for training and last to leave, he always seemed to have cricket
ball, stump, helmet, bat in his hand and he never stood still.
Hussey’s coach at the under 10’s did not
get a chance to say it but now the all cricketing world must be saying it “We
all want to be like Mike”.
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