How Mike Hussey became ‘Mr Cricket’ – and entered the hall of fame

It was a filthy day at Old Trafford, but not in Mike Hussey’s mind.

“It was cold, wet and miserable,” said Hussey, who was playing for Durham against a Lancashire team featuring Andrew Flintoff and Brad Hodge. “No one really wanted to be there, but I was loving it. I was charging between the wickets, making loud calls, chatting to my mate at the other end.

Mike Hussey on his way to a century at the SCG in 2012.Credit: Steve Christo

“‘Freddie’ [Flintoff] turned to ‘Hodgie’ and said, ‘this guy loves cricket more than anyone I know. He must be Mr Cricket’.”

The name stuck. It sits uncomfortably with the ever humble Hussey, but he acknowledges that it fits in that he was and still is wedded to the game. It’s been a happy marriage.

“You could be called a lot worse things,” he said. “I do love the game. I love talking about the game. I love hearing different ideas. But it never sat right with me because I’m certainly not the best player who ever played. I appreciate how hard it is.”

Mike Hussey in full one-day flight.Credit: Getty Images

Now he has another title to sit alongside it: Australian cricket hall of famer. Likewise, he thinks this is a cap that he will need time to wear in.

“I’m honoured, but more than that I’m grateful,” he said. “I’m very grateful to have played one game for Australia and wear that baggy green cap once. Then to play as many games as I did in the end …”

Australia can have had no more cheerful as well as accomplished cricketer than Hussey, which is remarkable because the game took a long time to return his smile. As noted by the Cricinfo website, “he waited a decade to become an overnight star”. He played his first Test at 30.

Hussey traces his rise back to two low moments. From the age of six, he wanted badly to play for Australia. Too badly. “I felt like I was close at various stages,” he said. “I tried to change my game to take the next step and that was detrimental to the way I played my best cricket. I ended up getting dropped from the WA team. I thought my dream of playing for Australia was over.”

Reflexively, his mindset changed. “That was the moment I thought, I’m not going to stress about it any more, I’m not going to put pressure on myself to make it,” he said. “As soon as I did that, and went back to enjoying the game and playing my way, my consistency returned and funnily enough, that’s when I got my opportunity to play for Australia, when I’d almost taken my mind off it.”

More runs for Mike Hussey.Credit: Sebastian Costanzo

By his own account, Hussey was a “dour” opening bat who had to “evolve”. “I tried to add a scoring option to my game each year,” he said. “I was a very hard-working player, very focussed and disciplined. But I was very conservative as well, scared to make a mistake. I wanted to be perfect in everything I did.”

Hussey’s other watershed was low-key. He was not in Western Australia’s team for a one-day match to follow a Sheffield Shield game against Victoria at the MCG, but when injuries sidelined Damien Martyn and Simon Katich, he was rushed in at No.7, and shared a partnership with Brad Hogg that led to a WA win. He was not dropped again.

In this down-the-order role, Hussey said he tried to improvise in the Michael Bevan style. “As an opener, the situation is similar all the time,” he said. “In the middle order, you’ve got to adapt to different situations. I had to add shots to my armoury.

Mike Hussey the broadcaster.Credit: Getty Images

“I think playing county cricket helped to evolve my game immeasurably. Coming from the WACA, there was lots of pace and bounce, lots of cuts and pulls. Three years at Northamptonshire, we had three very good spinners, Monty Panesar, Graeme Swann and Jason Brown. So I was batting against spin every day, in turning conditions, learning to sweep, reverse sweep, use my feet; it all added to my game.”

From this honest provenance emerged a man who was from the start one of Australia’s most energetic cricketers and became one of its most reliable in all formats. His hallmark was his ability to pace his game according to need. As his record shows, he made up for lost time. When he suddenly retired in 2013, it felt premature. He was 38 years old.

Hussey said he remembered fondly getting his first baggy green – at last – and his first century in his second Test, because it proved to everyone, not least himself, that he belonged. He marvels still to have commanded a place in a highly successful Australian team and to have shared a cricket field with all the great players of his time; he reels off their names as if they are idols still.

He cherishes no memory more highly than the Adelaide Ashes Test in 2006 when England declared at 6-551, yet Australia managed miraculously to pull off one of the great wins. Hussey hit the winning runs and an image of his euphoric celebration in the moment is synonymous with the triumph. “That was the best feeling I’ve ever had on a cricket field,” he said. “It’s probably the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke celebrate a remarkable Ashes win in Adelaide.Credit: AP

Hussey retired as a first-class cricketer 10 years ago, but not as Mr Cricket. He freelanced prolifically for a few more years on the Twenty20 circuit, and has worked since as an auxiliary coach for Australia, coach in the IPL and in England, and as a broadcaster. His two sons are playing cricket and he acts as scorer, umpire and impromptu coach.

Early in his Test career, Hussey said to a couple of journalists that if they ever thought he was getting ahead of himself, they should say so. Needless to report, they never had cause.

Asked by one son last week if he’d ever imagined himself in the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, he replied: “Never in my wildest dreams”. He’s still pinching himself.

Greg Baum was a member of the voting panel for this year’s hall of fame class.

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