Michael Hussey

Michael Edward Killeen Hussey (born 27 May 1975) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator and former international cricketer, who played all forms of the game.

Hussey is also widely known by his nickname 'Mr Cricket'.

Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the Australian one-day international and Test teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective formats, with 15,313 first-class runs before making his Test debut.

He then moved to England, where in July 2001 he scored an unbeaten 329 (a Northamptonshire club record) at Wantage Road in his side's 633 for six declared on the way to a 10-wicket victory.

He later captained Northamptonshire.

In August 2003 he surpassed his own Northamptonshire record, when he scored 331 not out against Somerset at Taunton.

When Hussey was playing for Australia A, the Australian reserve team, Allan Border once jokingly suggested he get match practice by staying in the nets for a full six hours; surprisingly, Hussey went on to do just that.

Hussey played for the Indian Premier League teams Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.

Hussey earned a Cricket Australia contract in 2004–05 after excelling in the ING Cup.

Statistically, Hussey's international career was very successful, with his career batting average in Tests being 51.52 and in ODIs 48.15.

Hussey debuted for the Australian One-day team against India on 1 February 2004 at his home WACA ground in Perth.

In this match Hussey made 17 not out helping Australia win the match by five wickets.

In the third Super Series match on 9 October 2005, Hussey became the first person to hit the roof of the Telstra Dome (the ICC World XI's Makhaya Ntini was the bowler in this case).

However, he had a highly successful international career, being the top-ranked ODI batsman in the world in 2006.

He played first-class cricket as vice-captain of the Western Warriors in Australia and played for three counties in England, as well as the Indian Premier League for the Chennai Super Kings.

On 6 February 2006, he tied with Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee on 22 votes for the Australian One-Day Player of the Year at the annual Allan Border Medal presentation.

However, Symonds was ruled ineligible after an alcohol-related indiscretion, and after Lee and Gilchrist were eliminated on countback, Hussey was named the outright winner.

Hussey had also come second overall in the Allan Border medal his first year in international cricket.

On 3 November 2006, Hussey became the ICC's ODI Player of the Year at the annual ICC Awards in Mumbai.

He was also named in its World ODI XI in 2006 and as 12th man in 2007.

On 18 September 2006, owing to Australia's rotation policy, and in Ricky Ponting's absence, Hussey captained Australia for the first time in the DLF Cup second round match against West Indies at Kuala Lumpur.

Australia lost the game by three wickets, but Hussey and Brad Haddin put together a sixth-wicket partnership of 165, a world record for that wicket in all ODIs.

With his time representing Australia, Hussey won multiple ICC titles with the team: the 2007 Cricket World Cup, the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, and the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.

In the 2007 Commonwealth Bank Triangular Series, Australia were in trouble while chasing a target against England, and in a later match New Zealand.

Both times Hussey guided the Australians to victory, and on both occasions was the only recognised batsman at the crease at the end of the match.

Hussey led Australia in the Chappell–Hadlee Trophy after selectors rested captain Ricky Ponting and vice-captain Adam Gilchrist.

The first match against New Zealand saw a 10-wicket loss, the first time Australia had lost by this margin in their One Day International history, although Hussey top scored with 42 off 96 balls.

He became the second batsman to score a century in the competition, after New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, making a score of 116 not out for Chennai against Kings XI Punjab in 2008.

He was a very occasional medium pace bowler, bowling only 98 overs in his Test career, 23 of them in 2008.

He was brought into the attack usually to give the pace bowlers a rest, although he was once brought on in India to stop Ricky Ponting getting a one-match ban for a slow over rate.

On 28 December 2008, Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test, he got his first Test wicket, Paul Harris caught by Mitchell Johnson.

He ended with figures of 1/22.

He took two wickets in One Day Internationals.

Hussey won the tournament with Chennai in 2010.

In 2011 he was the fifth-highest run-scorer in the competition, scoring 492 runs with a highest score of 81 not out, and in 2013 was the highest run-scorer with 733 runs, equalling the most runs by a batsman in an IPL season.

Michael Hussey announced his retirement from international cricket on 29 December 2012.

He played for Mumbai in 2014 but returned to Chennai the following season.

He continued to play for Big Bash side Sydney Thunder after this date before announcing his retirement from all forms of cricket after the completion of the 2015–16 season.

Hussey initially played for his native Western Australian Warriors, and his career total of 6471 runs ranks eighth in the list of that state's run-makers in the Sheffield Shield.

In January 2018 he was appointed as Chennai's batting coach.