Sudden retirement was a planned move, says Michael Hussey

Michael Hussey’s decision to take retirement from international cricket came as a surprise move for many, but the classy left-handed batsman has described that he was planning to take sudden retirement for a long time.

After playing 79 Tests and 185 One Day Internationals (ODIs), the Western Australian batsman decided to hang his boots. He was in brilliant form at that time and therefore, a lot of cricket pundits were surprised to see him calling it a day.

"Partly why I didn’t want to say anything to anyone was that I cherished every Test match I got to play and I really wanted to finish the Australian summer. If I made it known earlier then perhaps they would start looking ahead earlier and not play me in
my last couple of Tests," he said.

The Kangaroos are certainly missing Hussey’s experience and class these days. The side is in India where it has performed below par in the first two Tests. Australia’s performance was terrible particularly in the second encounter when they were thrashed
by an innings and 135 runs.

Coach Mickey Arthur said a few days ago that Hussey was a part of Australia’s cricketing plan for the year. Hussey is completely satisfied with his decision to take retirement, sharing that he is not ruing the fact that he is home while the side is in India.

"There’s been so much change and upheaval in Australian cricket over the last year or so, changing of coaches and selectors, players have come out of the team and new players have come in. So you’ve got to expect it will take time for trust to build up,
friendships to build, the hard times, the good times together, it all builds the culture over a period of time," he added.

Hussey remained a crucial part of the team for almost eight years. After his Test debut against West Indies in 2005, the classy batsman played many match-winning knocks. He had scored 6235 runs ahead of his retirement. His limited-over stats are equally
impressive, with 5442 runs at an average of 48.15.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Mar 14 2013. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry