MR CRICKET

YOU COULD make the case that being a member of the Australian Test squad meant more to Michael Hussey than to any modern cricketer. He waited longer than most to make his debut, and when he got to the big stage it took no less than the gentle words of an all-time great, Shane Warne, to bring him back to Earth.

Growing up in a meat-and-three-veg household in Mount Lawley in Western Australia, Hussey’s greatest worries were his two-years-younger brother’s precocious batting abilities and what time the sun would go down. It was a charmed and somewhat single-minded existence. His backyard cricket battles with David prepared him well for the next step, and he soon snared a Sheffield Shield spot as a 19-year-old with WA that he would not easily relinquish until retirement.

However, the dream of making the Australian squad did not come as naturally. He had racked up 10,000 first-class runs at state level before even getting a look in for national selection. In fact, it took Hussey a full 30 years, five months and seven days to earn his beloved Baggy Green.

His eventual career tally of 79 Tests, exactly half that of his boyhood idol Allan Border (156), is remarkable both for exemplifying his eventual entrenchment once he made the squad and understating the impact he left. He sits at No.17 on Australia’s all-time most capped list – ahead of Ian Chappell (75), Doug Walters (74) and Brett Lee (76).

Hussey was a man known for his actions rather than words. He had an 86.01 batting average two years into