David Hussey laments lack of Test cricket

David Hussey, the Australia batsman, has said not playing Test cricket has been "a source of massive frustration" for him and believes too much Twenty20 cricket is being played around the world.

Hussey is the leading run-scorer in Twenty20 history, having recently gone past Brad Hodge, but has not won a single Test cap, despite a first-class average of 55.57 that is higher than his brother Michael's.

"It has been a source of massive frustration," he said. "Test cricket is the ultimate for me, and when I'm 45 or 50 years of age I'd like to look back and know that I have played half-a-dozen Tests - even just one - for my country. There have still only been 400 or so who have had that honour.

"When I was doing well, the Australian team was doing well. I started out trying to emulate players of the calibre of Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Damien Martyn. It has been a fantastic time to be an Australian cricketer and I don't feel aggrieved. But you still desperately want to play, so there is a sense of disappointment."

Despite Cricket Australia's recent focus on youth, Hussey, who is approaching 34, said his new one-day cricket contract has rekindled his hopes of playing Test cricket. "It gives me a bit of hope and makes me all the more determined to do well for Notts [Nottinghamshire] in the Championship to remind the selectors I can play the longer version of the game as well."

Hussey played for the Kings XI Punjab in the 2011 IPL and thinks the season showed that there can be too much of a good thing. "Most of the games I played in were to packed houses, but towards the end of the tournament, when a few teams could not qualify, the attendances did drop. There were too many dead games and they need to address that.

"Every country has the potential to overkill Twenty20 cricket. You don't want too many games. In the IPL there were two games every night on the TV and you could get sick of watching it, you could find yourself longing for a bit of Test cricket.

None of that is to say he doesn't think Twenty20 has added to the game. For one thing, it has brought in a new generation of kids who might otherwise have chosen to play a different sport. It has also sped up the scoring rate in English county cricket, making for "fewer dull draws", but the pitfalls of how much is too much remain.

"In Australia I thought we had it about right, with six teams playing each other once, followed by a preliminary final and the final. Seven games played across two weeks for me was the perfect mix. The crowds got their T20 fix and then it was back to the serious stuff."