Mike Hussey waited until 30 for a Test cap, then scored at record speed
Michael Hussey had piled up 15,313 first-class runs before Australia finally handed him a Test cap at 30. Once in, he wasted no time. He reached 1,000 Test runs in just 166 days, faster than anyone before him, and within months was ranked the world's best one-day batsman. Fans called him Mr Cricket.
Born in Mount Lawley, a Perth suburb, in 1975, Hussey trained as a science teacher before cricket took over. A scholarship to the Australian Cricket Academy put him alongside Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie, and his younger brother David also went on to play for Australia. His dedication became legend: when Allan Border joked that he should stay in the nets for six straight hours, Hussey actually did it.
The long apprenticeship ran through Western Australia and English county cricket. For Northamptonshire in July 2001 he made an unbeaten 329, a club record, and he later captained the county. His one-day debut for Australia came in February 2004 on his home ground, the WACA, when he was 28, and his Test debut followed at the Gabba on 3 November 2005, replacing Justin Langer. He managed just one in his first innings, then hit 137 in the next Test at Bellerive Oval.
Batting lower down, he specialised in rescuing innings with the tail, including a 107-run last-wicket stand with Glenn McGrath against South Africa in which he made 122. In 2005 he became the first batsman to hit the roof of the Telstra Dome. He captained Australia in one-day games when the regular leaders were rested, though one match ended in a ten-wicket defeat, the first of that margin in Australia's one-day history. He retired from international cricket on 29 December 2012 with averages of 51.52 in Tests and 48.15 in one-day matches.
The Indian Premier League gave him a second career. For Chennai Super Kings he became only the second centurion in the competition's history, with 116 not out in 2008, won the title in 2010 and topped the run charts in 2013 with 733. He later became Chennai's batting coach.
Source: Michael Hussey
