Hussain refuses to make excuses for England loss
Staff and Agencies - 30 October 2000

Nasser Hussain at the presentation ceremony Photo © AllSport UK

Nasser Hussain’s determination to lead England with a positive outlook appears unquenchable. Not much went right for the England captain yesterday from the moment he lost the toss, but where others may have resorted to moaning their ill luck, the England captain described his day as "character building."

On a day when England lost the third one-day match by six-wickets, and with it the series 2-1, there must have been a temptation for some self-pity. Both teams had already endured flying insects and a slippery ball, but in the final match at Rawalpindi umpiring disputes, crowd trouble and the Pakistani spinners combined to ensure a miserable day for the Englishmen. Hussain, though, was still keen to learn from the experience, and to keep the squad in a positive frame of mind.

The game had to be suspended on two occasions as tear gas used by the police to disperse a crowd outside the ground drifted across the pitch. "When the tear gas first hit the boys it was bad, it got in their eyes and up their nose," revealed Hussain.

Marcus Trescothick was batting during the first tear gas break, and admitted he was shocked when he realised what was happening.

"I knew something was wrong because I saw everybody else hit the deck, but until somebody had explained what happened I had no idea."

"Our eyes started burning and we couldn't really breathe much, but we got away from the worst of it and tried to cover our eyes and our mouths as best we could."

"Everybody out there was really shocked with what had happened and it was a bit worrying because you don't know what's going on, it's certainly different from anything you experience in England!"

Pakistan captain Moin Khan agreed that it was an unfortunate incident: "The gas was a problem because you couldn't see it coming. It affected the throat and the eyes, I've never experienced anything like it before in Pakistan."

Hussain himself had been given out lbw to a ball pitching outside the leg-stump, but is determined not to be dragged into controversy surrounding umpiring decisions, or anything else that may bring back the bad memories of 1987.

"It had no affect on the game," Hussain insisted, "but we've had the full spectrum of things in this series and it's all character-building."

The England captain also revealed that plastic bottles had been thrown at the English boundary fielders as they tried, in vain, to restrict the Pakistan score.

"Freddie (Flintoff) came up to me and said he'd got hit by a couple of empty bottles, and I told him to get on with it."

"When he went for that catch just after that he got pelted by two or three more, so I told the umpire if he could go and have a word out there and try and calm people down, which he did."

But Hussain, who seems cut out for a career in diplomacy when he leaves cricket, was keen to play down such incidents.

"These things happen in this part of the world," he explained. "They get a bit bored when they see their side strolling it and throw a couple of empty plastic bottles, it wasn't a big deal."

"A couple of the boys on the boundary were coming in five paces off the line to get away from it and there are a few things which maybe the match referee can look at, but that's for future tours."

"We knew it was going to be different and if you ask the locals I don't think they would call them rum conditions."

"This is how cricket out here is played, full of chaos theory. It must make great viewing because there's never a dull moment, but it makes it a bit harder when you're out in the middle."

"We've learnt it's going to be hard work out here," Hussain said.

"We're going to have to have a lot of fight and character, and I think we showed that with the ball yesterday and showed with the bat in the first game."

"We have to put things together to win out here, you can't just do one part of your game, you have to do all parts and that's what's disappointing."

"There's no disgrace in losing 2-1, but it's disappointing to have some of the boys going home thinking what if we'd got a few more runs here or there and we could have done something."

Hussain agreed that England had simply not scored enough runs, or been able to cope with Saqlain Mushtaq. The Surrey off-spinner turned the ball prodigiously to finish with figures of 5-20, and England will have to learn their lessons quickly if they are to avert a similar result in the Test series.

England will now contest two four-day warm up games prior to the Tests. Caddick, Gough and Hussain are expected to rest, providing opportunities for those players recently arrived from England, such as Tudor, Atherton and Salisbury, to earn Test places.

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