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Born 27 May 1975, Mike Hussey is widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket.
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Growing up in Perth he looked up to Rodney Marsh and Dennis Lillee and being from Western Australia, Allan Border was his hero. After seeing him dominate a Boxing Day Test, he went to the backyard to play with his brother David. (Cont)
There for the first time he played left-handed to be like his hero Allan Border- never wanting to give his wicket away and to be as determined as him. (Cont)
He made his debut for Western Australia at the age of 19. He only played the one game because a player was injured. There he played with guys like T Moody, D Martyn, Gilly and Brad Hogg. (Cont)
He was a regular player from the next year and played well for 4–5 years but could not break into the Australian side which had some great players performing consistently. So he decided to change his game and put more pressure on himself, trained harder. (Cont)
As a result, because of the pressure he put on himself, his performance went down. He even got dropped from the Western Australia team! (Cont)
Western Australia had a great rivalry with the Queensland team and he used to struggle against them in Shield Cricket. They used to constantly talk to the opposition and said things to him that made him angry, feel inferior and that he didn’t deserve playing against them. (Cont)
He failed once again and he was so disappointed that he started doubting himself. He sat in the dressing room at Gabba and just started writing to Steve Waugh. He did that because he thought he wasn’t mentally tough enough. (Cont)
And when he asked himself who was the mentally toughest, the answer was Steve Waugh. So he started writing and asking how could he become tougher, describing his struggles against Queensland.
As he was writing the letter, the answers started coming to him (cont)
As he was writing the letter, the answers started coming to him (cont)
That they were just trying to distract him and all he needed to do was focus on his preparation, his game and concentrate on the ball.
In the end he was too embarrassed to send the letter!
In the end he was too embarrassed to send the letter!
He then went on an Australia A tour to Scotland and Ireland. Their coach was his idol AB. While training before a game against Scotland, the bowlers only wanted to bowl 15–20 balls and the batsmen too only wanted to face the bowlers for 5–10 minutes (cont)
And then take rest to be fresh for the game the next day. Allan Border was not at all happy and gave them quite a lecture which got Hussey thinking. He went back to Australia and in a weekend with his batting coach started the marathon session (cont)
Starting at 11 till 1 and took lunch break up to 1:40. Then played the next session from 1:40 to 3:40, took a 20 min tea break and then batted again. (Cont)
He was completely exhausted because in a match, a player gets a lot less time for batting, with breaks betw overs, standing at the non-strikers etc. Here it was continuous batting through the day! This taught him how to play through the day as well as try out all the shots.(Cont)
In Nov 2005 against WI, he finally received a Test call up. He had just finished a game for Western Australia where they had lost and J Langer had been hit in the ribs and was hurt. Hussey had gone for a walk on the beach with his wife and new daughter. (Cont)
When he came back in the car, the phone rang. He was asked to come to Brisbane as a stand-by for Langer. (Cont)
