UST a couple of weeks ago I had made the point that the English Test side will have to keep the momentum generated by the One Day counterparts going. Any failure was not going to go down well with the followers of English cricket. It was all the more important because England had a new One day captain in place and he had not made a fool of himself on or off the field. With Michael Vaughan breathing down Nasser Hussain’s throat, the contest was intense. I had hoped that the competition will be healthy and that the team will benefit out of this positive rivalry within the Test side. As it turned out, it was not to be.
It is some reflection of the strong sense of public disappointment in England that Nasser chose to step down as the England captain even though he had not been asked to do that by the authorities.
It happens quite often in sports that people quit the game or the post after a bit of behind-the-scene arm-twisting by the authorities concerned, and then everybody works hard to make it look like a voluntary decision. But in Nasser’s case, I guess it is not the case.
The resignation came so suddenly that it could only have been an individual’s impulsiveness and nothing else. Had it been the authorities, they would not have chosen the first Test of a series to make it happen. In fact, it was the first Test of the fresh season, and the change would have come at the start of the season, or at the end of it, or, at the very minimum, at the end of the series against South Africa. The timing of the resignation itself suggests that the ECB had nothing to do with it.
That being so, it is pointless to discuss should or should not Nasser have done what he has done. It is an individual’s decision and must be taken as such. But it is, indeed, time to reflect on what the Nasser Hussain captaincy meant for the Englishmen. I am not interested in his statistical record at the head of the English side, but I am sure that cold figures would never do him any justice. His captaincy was more about putting England back on track rather than exploring fresh avenues.
When he took charge from Michael Autherton, the English side was the butt of all jokes in the international arena. The element of self-belief was simply missing from the equation, and the side was ever-ready to get thrashed on the field. The credit goes to Nasser for bringing about a basic change in things without having much resources in terms of fresh talent. He converted the same set of players into a fighting unit that was willing it to give it everything regardless of the results. And when that happens, the results naturally begin to go your way.
Things, in fact, had touched such a low a few years ago that public interest in cricket had started dwindling in England, which is the home of the game. Indeed, the country was producing more football players than cricketers. The famed County circuit was suffering as few youngsters were interested in the game, and nothing much was coming through the ranks. With English cricket regaining its competitive edge during the Nasser era, the interest at the grassroots level was revived, and a string of fresh faces have worn the English colours in the last couple of years.
All these, however, are intangibles that many will forget in the years to come, and the statisticians will give you the bottom line, the only tangible in the equation. But this will be unfair to Nasser because his legacy is much more than mere results.
UST a couple of weeks ago I had made the point that the English Test side will have to keep the momentum generated by the One Day counterparts going. Any failure was not going to go down well with the followers of English cricket. It was all the more important because England had a new One day captain in place and he had not made a fool of himself on or off the field. With Michael Vaughan breathing down Nasser Hussain’s throat, the contest was intense. I had hoped that the competition will be healthy and that the team will benefit out of this positive rivalry within the Test side. As it turned out, it was not to be.
