Hussain can put accent on change (28 June 1999)

28 June 1999

Hussain can put accent on change

Michael Henserson

For commentaries on pomp and ceremony it is never a bad idea to turn to Gilbert and Sullivan, and it took Nasser Hussain no time at all to borrow some appropriate lines from the Savoy songbook. About 20 minutes, actually. At his inaugural press conference at Lord's he went straight into the patter number from Ruddigore: "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation. . . ."

He said it. Nobody will give him an argument there. The England captaincy is such an awful situation to confront that Hussain starts with everybody's best wishes, however many doubts some prominent people harbour about his suitability. For what it is worth, and Hussain probably thinks it is not worth much, this column thinks he should have been appointed a year ago. Others, better placed to influence the decision, did not and, privately, spelt out their reasons.

Neither David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, nor Tim Lamb, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, would explain publicly why Hussain was denied the job last year, other than to repeat the well-rehearsed line that Alec Stewart was considered the better bet. English cricket is shot through with that kind of flawed logic, which is often based on who is "due". The game's motto might as well be: "No sense, please, we're English."

Now that Hussain is captain, and Duncan Fletcher will shortly stand by his side as coach, what changes can we expect? Perhaps the biggest is one that the cricketing press and public can make themselves. We cannot expect the captain to make a huge difference on his own. It is not Hussain's fault, any more than it was Stewart's, that this country lacks the abundance of outstanding players that are available, for instance, to Australia and Pakistan.

Nor is it his fault that the county game requires a root-and-branch reform starting, immediately, with the scrapping of an absurd benefit system that keeps every player in his place as firmly as a Victorian matron. The greatest service the ECB can perform on behalf of cricket, and cricketers, is to do away with this outmoded excrescence at once.

Hussain cannot be held accountable for poor performances on the field, either. If bowlers insist on bowling both sides of the wicket, and if batsmen make a habit of giving their wickets away, there is little a captain can do except lead by example and not pick them again.

It is clear from experience, though, that England continue to go back to players who have let them down. Everybody knows who they are, so there is no point in exposing them to embarrassment. When Matthew Maynard speaks of Duncan Fletcher, as he did the other day, as a man who will not tolerate excuses, it is fair to reply: let's wait and see.

Already Hussain has spoken of his high regard for Mark Taylor, the former Australia captain, who was "exemplary". Yes, he was. He was the finest captain of modern times, and why? Because he was a brilliant leader on the field, and a gracious man off it. He never did anything to demean himself, his team, or the game.

Hussain has "previous" in that regard - after all, there are not many batsmen Jonty Rhodes has gone out of his way to "send off" - and though he has grown up a bit, he has a bit more to do. Not to put too fine a point on it, he is regarded by the players he will now lead as the most selfish man in the team, and that cannot be a healthy reputation for the England captain to have.

Before he does anything else, he can improve the team's conduct, and he can make a useful start by speaking properly, because he will be doing plenty of it. Somebody who went to a good university has no excuse for speaking in that ghastly estuary sludge. Verbal imprecision often reveals mental laziness. Be a good chap, skipper, use the letter T. It's not there just to keep S and U company.

He can also clamp down on the vain celebration of hundreds, an irritating habit at which he himself excels. After making a century against South Africa last year he charged about, waving his bat like a spraygun, as though he had won the Derby, the Nobel Peace Prize and the Ladies' Excuse-Me. It looked undignified and, if he is to be true to his word, it must stop. That sort of thing alienates spectators.

Most important, he can restore some nobility to the team. It is all very well Fletcher talking of "discipline, determination and hard work". One expects as much from a bunch of road-diggers. What is needed is a sense of adventure. Cricket is not warfare by other means. It is only a game, in all its wonderful triviality.

The worst failing in English cricket is timidity. Players are scared to behave naturally, and sometimes even to think for themselves. Hussain should sit each one down and tell them that these are the best days of their lives, the ones they will recall when they are running pubs, working behind office desks or, more likely, filling spaces in press boxes next to scribes they currently view with such disdain.

Cricketers may view this estimation of their game - their living, they would put it - as hopelessly romantic. But they are wrong. We have been deceived for too long by advocates of supposedly hard-nosed professionalism when in fact what they represent is a joyless, risk-free enterprise.

Nasser, it's up to you, lad. You have the chance to remind people of why cricket is a great game, which means a bit more than who wins at Edgbaston this week. It is a good time to start, and there is no reason why you shouldn't get at least two years to make a fist of things. Just don't look back when your lease has expired and think: if only.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph