Michael Hussey retired from international cricket in 2013 but his passion for the game remains undimmed. Even at 40, he continues to captain the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League with the same enthusiasm. He is Thunder's highest scorer this season, with three half-centuries and an average of 55.4 in seven matches.
Hussey worked as a batting consultant for South Africa during the World Cup and later in the T20 series in India. He will now be working in the same role for Australia during World T20. During the third ODI of the VB Series at the MCG, Hussey shared his thoughts on a number of subjects, discussing his time with South Africa, M.S. Dhoni's captaincy, and his future.
The excerpts:
On the South African experience: I enjoyed learning about how different cultures go about their cricket. You just have to look at the dressing room. They've got different religions, colours, and languages there. There were Muslims, Christians, white people, black people, coloured people, and they're very very respectful to one another. In Australia we're just starting to get a little bit of that. We're seeing some Indians, and Usman Khawaja of Pakistani origin coming into the Australian team. But they're probably the first. We haven't really experienced that in our country before. Coming from my background, I've never had to embrace different cultures. I found that really fascinating.
On a future in coaching: Possibly, yeah. I enjoy the coaching side of it. But what most people don't understand is how much work, effort, time and energy goes into coaching a team. It's not just turning up at the nets and having a net session. Hours and hours of work go into it. All the coaches out there deserve a lot more credit than what they're given. I'm just at the start of that journey. I'm just trying to do little bits and pieces of coaching to try and build up some experience.
On the IPL: Well, I’m in the auction at this stage. I hope to get picked up. If not, I’ll be at home I guess, watching. I don’t know what the future holds.
On CSK: I have a lot of friends and good relationships with the fans, the players and the administration at CSK. Obviously having spent so much time in Chennai, you do feel part of a family almost. It’s a shame that we’re out of the competition for a couple of years, but that’s the way it goes.
On M.S. Dhoni: The reason he’s been such a good captain is this...India is cricket-mad, the players are trying so hard and they want to do well too much. And sometimes, the harder you try, the worse you go. Then you put so much pressure on yourself. The fans and the media put so much pressure on the players. He’s got this wonderful ability just to get the players to relax, try and take that pressure off them. Just go out there and play and enjoy playing the game of cricket: that’s what he impresses on the players all the time. It's one of his greatest strengths, particularly in a place like India, where there is so much tension, stress, pressure, and attention on all the players.
On the questions over Dhoni's place in the team: He’s a very honest guy. If he feels he’s not the right man for the job or if he feels like he’s not contributing as much as he can, I’m confident that he’ll walk away from the job. But while he still feels he can contribute, I would back him 100% because he’s got the experience, the talent, and the cricket brain. He stepped aside from Test cricket when he felt like he could not contribute. I’ve got a lot of respect for him.
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