ON THIS DAY: NASSER’S DODGY CALL

"Oh God, Nass, what have you done?"

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The Cricketer looks back on famous moments in Ashes history during England’s trip Down Under.

Today, it’s the story of a Brisbane belter, a dodgy decision and 15 years of living with the consequences...

England hadn’t won the first toss of an Ashes series Down Under for more than 30 years when Nasser Hussain called correctly at the Gabba on November 7, 2002. How he must wish he hadn’t been the one to break the streak.

Hussain’s decision to insert Australia on a flat track in Brisbane that sunny Thursday morning has become the thing of cricketing legend - a bottomless cup of mockery from which his broadcasting colleagues still sip today.

But, for all the humiliation of watching your opponents end day one on 364 for two after inviting them to pad up, there was at least some method in Hussain’s madness.

No, really. 

While Brisbane’s pitch is notoriously batsman-friendly, the sub-tropical climate in Queensland has all the potential to offer bowlers plenty of assistance in the air.

Hussain arrived at the Gabba that day anticipating the ball swinging.

Plenty for Nasser to ponder...

He had heard suggestion that Aussie skipper Steve Waugh would have done the same, while a pre-match conversation with Marcus Trescothick - who after a net session indicated he would also bowl - helped make up the captain’s mind.

Plus, he had a potentially devastating swing bowler in the shape of 23-year-old Simon Jones in his armoury. Hussain had hopes of limiting Australia to a score of around 350.

Furthermore, though opting to field first was at the time an unusual tactic by an England captain (to that point England had played 800 Test matches and only chosen to take the ball 64 times, winning just 17), calling right and batting at Brisbane is not a default setting.

In three consecutive Ashes series during the 1980s and early 1990s, Australia chose to bowl after winning the toss at Brisbane, to mixed results.

"What's the thinking?"

In 1982 and 1990, they dismissed the Poms cheaply and won both matches comfortably but in 1986 the decision backfired on Allan Border. Sir Ian Botham hit a quickfire 100 and David Gower, Mike Gatting and Bill Athey all passed 50 as England racked up 456 in their first innings and eventually raced home by seven wickets.

So opting to take the field wasn’t particularly seismic. Yet what followed was.

Jones snapped his cruciate ligament in sickening circumstances on the sandy outfield on the first morning and an attack already bereft of Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff and Darren Gough laboured through a soul-sapping second-wicket partnership of 272 between Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting.

“The ball swung a bit at first and I thought: 'Maybe this is going to work out,'” Hussain later reflected. 

“But by the fifth or sixth over nothing was happening and the world was closing in on me. I thought to myself: 'Oh God, Nass, what have you done?'”

'Haydos' racks up the runs on day one

Hussain admitted that he “got too cute with the game, reasoning that our best chance lay in limiting a powerful line-up to about 350, and then cashing in ourselves when conditions for batting were at their best on days two and three.”

But Aussie opener Justin Langer was at pains to point out that, had his bowlers bowled better, Hussain’s call would never have gained the notoriety it has.

Still, there was not much pity shown by commentators as England’s doomed 2002-03 tour got off to the worse possible start.

The Telegraph’s Derek Pringle wrote: “In earlier times, inserting the opposition and seeing them finish the day on 364 for two would have been enough for a captain to summon his faithful hound, light a last cigarette and load a single bullet into the revolver.”

Stephen Brenkley in the Independent was not much kinder, suggesting that “the England captain may not be fit to be set loose in the company of small change”. 

England of course went on to lose the Test by 384 runs, as Hussain is still constantly reminded.

Words by Sam Morshead | @SamMorshead_

 

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