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Michael Hussey gave younger brother David a bit of chin music in the nets at Australian training in Grenada today. But that was nothing compared to what used to go down in the Hussey family backyard when the duelling brothers were kids.
Back then, they were always at each other’s throats.
“We were just trying to kill each other really,” Michael somewhat fondly remembers.
“As a kid, everything was competitive. We weren’t friends, definitely not. I just saw him as the enemy and had to win.
“But we’re good now … I think there’s a healthy respect for each other.”
This is a story about two brothers who grew up as bitter rivals, became closer – ironically – when one moved 3,500km away, and could in the very near future become just the 12th set of siblings in 131 years of Australian Test cricket to both wear the baggy green.
Michael, after a long initiation in domestic cricket for Western Australia, has already established himself as a Test star for Australia, with David, after several superb seasons for Victoria, now just starting to break into the international scene.
Separated by two years, the Husseys have already become the first brothers to represent Australia in Twenty20 cricket.
Sometime over the next 10 days, with David on his first tour with Australia in the West Indies, they will likely play a one-day international together.
And unlike when they were kids, Michael no longer has to “blackmail” his brother to get him out playing cricket.
“I just remember him cheating, really,” Michael, 33, said of their backyard battles.
“He’d try to bend the rules a bit and then I’d try to drive him into the dirt.
“But generally, he would blackmail me a little bit because I was desperate to play cricket in the backyard.
“He’d say ‘I’m only playing if I’m batting first’, and I’d say ‘alright’, so then I’d get him out and he’d say ‘no, I’m not playing anymore’ so I’d have to give him another chance.”
David remembers the squash court being equally as fierce.
“I used to always aim for his back, the back of the legs so he would have to retire and I could win the match. I was a bit dodgy like that,” said David, who turns 31 next month.
It was only when David made the bold decision to move away from Western Australia in 2001 and established himself with Victoria that the brothers finally started to become close.
Michael believes the turning point may have come the first time the brothers squared off for their respective states.
David was well known for his sledging abilities, but despite constant probing from his Vic teammates, refused to deliver any choice words to Michael when he was at the crease.
As Michael explained: “I would never sledge him, so I felt there was a mutual respect there.”
Now, they speak on the phone fortnightly, text each other all the time and have dinner whenever they are in the same city.
On tour, they are just like any other teammates – although Michael said if there was ever a disagreement within the squad, he would be the first to back up his brother – no matter what.
Michael “hates” David’s nickname at Victoria, Bom-er (Brother of Mike), and was equally incensed when people would say: “David was living in your shadow”.
Like David himself, he is desperately keen to see his brother strike his own identify in international cricket.
“Mike’s a fantastic player and he deserves all the success he gets because he works so hard … but I would like to have my own identity, to be honest,” David said.
“My ultimate goal is to play Test cricket. If that’s with Mike, so be it. It’s not really a great concern if I’m Mike’s brother, or anything like that.
“But I would like to be an individual, I guess.”
BROTHERS TO PLAY TEST CRICKET FOR AUSTRALIA
Ken and Ron Archer
Alec and Charles Bannerman
John and Richie Benaud
Greg, Ian and Trevor Chappell
George and Walter Giffen
Dave and Ned Gregory
Merv and Neil Harvey
Charlie and Bob McLeod
Albert and Harry Trott
Hugh and John Trumble
Mark and Steve Waugh
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