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Why Mr Cricket should be remembered as one of the greats

Mickey Arthur's comin' to town. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Roar Pro
6th January, 2014
21

When people think of the all time greats of cricket, they think about the likes of WG Grace, Sir Donald Bradman, Garry Sobers, Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Sachin Tendulka, Brian Lara, Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting.

To me, as a proud, cricket loving Australian, I also think of the Chappels, the Waughs, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath and, as a left-armer myself, Mitchell Johnson!

But the one name man who never gets put into this group of brilliant cricketers is a man whose nickname features the game itself.

Michael Hussey, also known as Mr Cricket, is one of the best cricketers I have ever seen live.

Whether in the field or with the bat, he was (and by his recent form in the Big Bash, still is) the fastest and most energetic player I have seen, and quite a few would agree.

Hussey performed for his country almost every time it was needed, particularly in the 2005/6 Boxing Day Test against South Africa when he combined with Glenn McGrath for a 107 run last wicket partnership which saved Australia from a huge first innings deficit and eventually the Aussies won the game.

Although most will remember when Hussey completely lost sight of a ball in the air against South Africa at another Boxing Day Test (the sight of Hussey running around in circles was humorous), it certainly didn’t show how skilled Hussey actually was in the field.

Hussey was one of the best gullies going around, and took some of the most important catches for Australia in his time.

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His stats show he had a pretty good Test career, with 6235 runs at 51.52. The astonishing thing about Hussey’s career was that after the first two years of his Test career, he averaged 81.86!

His average of 51 could easily line-up with the players I mentioned above as it is higher than Richards’ and just below Ponting’s (by around 0.30).

You may say that Hussey has an advantage for his average because he played half the amount of games as Ponting or Richards, but it is no mean feat he had an average over 50 at the end of his 79 Tests.

And although Hussey is 38-years-old, he still captains and stars for the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League and plans to play Sheffield Shield cricket if his body lets him.

With all that said, Hussey could still play for the Australian T20 and ODI teams.

Although Michael Hussey was never my favourite player, he was the one that Australia could almost always rely on when times were tough and when we were three down for nothing.

And although it is a tad bit late (just a tad), congratulations on a brilliant career, I hope you will be remembered among the greats – as you should be.

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