Hussain takes centre stage in tale of the unexpected

Source: Rampant Lion     Date: August  03, 2003

Cricket: Rahul Dravid reflects on the England captain’s shock decision and the impact he made as leader of the national side. 

If anybody ever imagined there was anything predictable about Test cricket, the events last week surrounding Nasser Hussain’s resignation from the post of England captain and the promotion of Michael Vaughan should remind everyone never to take anything in the game for granted.

By the end of the first Test at Edgbaston, it seemed that the South African tourists had emerged with the better of the draw, but without inflicting the kind of heavy defeat which might have forced the home captain to quit.

I have to confess that I was surprised when I heard about Hussain’s announcement. Yes, it was perhaps understandable that he should decide to relinquish the one-day duties and hand over the reins to Vaughan.

However, as to being in charge of the full Test team, I thought that when he returned to the fold for the South African campaign – in which England have the opportunity to climb to second in the world rankings – that after starting the series, he would finish it. So the timing was unexpected.

From past experience, I regard Hussain as a good captain, a man who was 100% professional in his approach to the job, and whose influence helped England regain a lot of the momentum they relinquished in the mid-1990s.

Rarely, if ever, did he surrender his wicket cheaply. He toughed it out and demanded that his teammates followed suit and anyone with a victory rate above 50% has got to be treated with respect.

Yet sometimes, you just wake up one morning and decide a job isn’t fun any more, and although I have no idea of what was going on inside Hussain’s head, he reached his decision, acted on it immediately, and yes, there are occasions where your gut instinct is the right one.

After all, he watched from the sidelines as Vaughan marshalled his troops to an emphatic victory over Pakistan and South Africa in the NatWest series. And considering the fact that the Yorkshireman is in such a rich vein of form at the moment, and is one of the three or four best batsmen in the world, he has become an automatic selection and looks like a man with natural leadership skills.

In that light, despite the inexperienced but inspirational Graeme Smith maintaining his magnificent form and establishing a stranglehold for the Proteas amid the ongoing second Test, it’s far too premature to judge anybody on the basis of two or three days, or even two or three matches, and the earliest time to make a proper verdict will be at the beginning of next summer.

Indeed, in one sense, the spate of headlines which greeted the confirmation of Hussain’s departure, have offered me solace that Test cricket is still the most important version of the sport, and it’s refreshing to be reminded that, despite the plethora of limited-overs tournaments which are turning up on the international schedules, that the original five-day format can arouse so many strong emotions and passionate sentiments. So much for the prophets of doom who had forecast that attendances would dwindle to almost nothing and that youngsters lacked the necessary attention span or patience to be gripped by these contests.

Naturally, the philosophy of Test cricket is changing, and the tempo has accelerated as players learn how to adapt their improvisational shots from one day internationals. In the past, it would have been difficult to envisage that any team would have sprinted to 398 for one at the end of the first day, as the South Africans did in Birmingham, but the Australians have stepped up the tempo, other nations are following suit, and it can only be to the benefit of the game if this attacking attitude produces more positive results.

Granted, there are still dull Test encounters, occasions which fizzle out into nothingness with two days remaining, but then again, not every one day international is a crash-bang-wallop affair where the outcome isn’t resolved until the last couple of deliveries: in short, it would be absurd to generalise that all the thrills come in the 50-over tussles and anybody who caught the recent series between the West Indies and Australia in the Caribbean will be aware of how many sparks can fly on the modern Test circuit, especially when somebody such as Brett Lee is grappling with Brian Lara.

In fact, I defy anybody who watched the Windies successfully chase over 400 for victory in the fourth innings not to admit that they were totally gripped by the proceedings as the match ebbed and flowed.

In the last few days, I’ve been asked whether I reckon Scotland might eventually graduate into the Test environment and I certainly don’t think it’s an impossible dream in the long run. But equally, I don’t believe it would help anyone for the Scots to rush the process without building up a lot of experience, first in the NCL, then achieving a string of decent results and gaining automatic one day international status, while putting together a first-class structure at domestic level.

None of this can be attained overnight, but then again, that didn’t happen with Sri Lanka either and just look at how far they have come in the last decade.

The trick is for the youngsters to work really hard, because it’s the current 18 and 19-year-olds who will form the nucleus of any future national squads, which should be the perfect motivation for them. Not that, having met a fair number of these tough little customers, they need any incentive to drive them forward on Scotland’s behalf.