Nasser Hussain, Indian-English cricketer and sportscaster
Nasser Hussain (born 28 March 1968) is a British cricket commentator and former cricketer who captained the England cricket team between 1999 and 2003, with his overall international career extending from 1990 to 2004. A pugnacious right-handed batsman, Hussain scored over 30,000 runs from more than 650 matches across all first-class and List-A cricket, including 62 centuries. His highest Test score of 207, scored in the first Test of the 1997 Ashes at Edgbaston, was described by Wisden as "touched by genius". He played 96 Test matches and 88 One Day International games in total. In Tests he scored 5,764 runs, and he took 67 catches, fielding predominantly in the second slip and gully.
Born in Madras in India, Hussain was led into cricket by his father, and his family moved to England when Hussain was a young child. He joined Essex in 1987 after developing from a spin bowler to batsman while at school and playing for the various Essex youth teams, as the leg-spin of his youth deserted him. He was selected for England initially on the back of 990 runs scored for Essex in the County Championship of 1989, though injury and poor form would limit his international caps during the early 1990s to three Tests of a 1990 West Indies tour, and four further matches in 1993. Only in 1996 did he become a regular England Test cricketer.
Although regarded as somewhat of a firebrand in his youth, Hussain succeeded Alec Stewart as captain in 1999 and led England in forty-five Test matches until resigning in 2003. Overseeing four consecutive Test series victories and England's rise to third in the Test rankings, Hussain is regarded as one of England's most able captains. Simon Barnes of The Times wrote that Hussain was "perhaps the finest captain to hold the office." After resigning the captaincy, Hussain played on in Test cricket until the debut Test of future captain Andrew Strauss – the ability of whom was witnessed by Hussain who scored a century in the same match – and growing calls for him to leave the team, prompted him to yield his position and retire. He joined Sky Sports as a commentator shortly thereafter. His 2005 autobiography Playing With Fire won the Best Autobiography category of the 2005 British Sports Book Awards.