Nasser Hussain became England’s captain when the nation’s cricket team was down at the bottom of the world rankings. It was his drive and determination that pulled the team up from the morass and gave the players a new found confidence. Hussain’s style of captaincy reflected his own personality. It was dynamic and forceful, never static. Other captains have done the same thing for their respective teams. Allan Border did it for Australia and Sourav Ganguly did it for India.
A new resurgence of these teams began with these outstanding captains and so it was with Nasser Hussain who was helped by Zimbabwean cricket coach Duncan Fletcher. In 1999 Nasser succeeded Alec Stewart as captain of England and led them in forty-five Test matches until he resigned in 2003. Simon Barnes, cricket correspondent of The Times, London, has written that Nasser Hussain was perhaps the finest England captain to hold office.
Nasser’s roots lie in India and go back a long way. He was born in Chennai in 1968. His father Raza Jawad Hussain was a good cricketer too. Jawad Hussain popularly known as Joe Hussain used to play for Madras University. He also played one Ranji trophy match against Kerala. In 1975 Jawad Husain shifted his base to the UK and it was there that his children grew up.
The family is descendants of Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, who was the Nawab of Arcot in the 18th century. The Arcot state came into existence during the rule of Emperor Aurangzeb. He appointed Zulfikhar Ali Khan as the first subedar of the Carnatic region with his seat of power at Arcot. The Carnatic Sultanate controlled a vast territory which lay to the south of the Krishna River. After a succession of rulers had come and gone, Nawab Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah became the ruler in 1765.
The Nawab was a staunch ally of the British officers and the East India Company but he was also a very shrewd negotiator who could extract a lot of advantages from the foreign powers by playing off the British against the French. At times the Nawab borrowed heavily from the East India Company only to fund candidates in the elections in the UK so that they would act according to his wishes. So, in effect, he borrowed from the British to buy the British with their own money!!
The Nawab’s wish was to become the most powerful ruler in South India but his main rivals at the time were Hyder Ali (father of Tipu Sultan), the Maratha rulers and the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Mughal court in Delhi granted the Nawab the titles of Siraj ud-Daula, Anwar ud-din Khan Bahadur, and Dilawar Jang, along with a mansab of 5,000 zat and 5,000 sawar, by an Imperial firman in 1750.
But to get back to the present days, Nasser Hussain’s uncle Abid Hussain who was living in Chennai, said in an interview many years ago that he belonged to a family that had four brothers and three sisters. The youngest of the brothers was Jawad Hussain, father of Nasser.
Jawad moved to the UK because he wanted his children to become good cricketers and also get a good education. Nasser, one of three brothers, was only four years old when the family moved away. Jawad was not happy to leave his mother and siblings back in India but he felt that he should move to the UK for the sake of his children. After settling down there, he started a cricket academy in Essex and that is where Nasser began to polish his skills.
At the age of 14 Nasser was selected to play for the England schoolboys’ team. A year later he became captain of the team. But thereafter his career hit a low patch as his bowling ability dropped suddenly. He used to be a good leg spinner but as he grew up to be about six feet tall, his bowling trajectory changed and he found he was no longer as effective as he used to be earlier. Thereafter he focussed on his batting and became a proficient batter.
He made his Test debut for England against the West Indies in 1990 and a few years later cemented his place in the side with good knocks against India. In July 1999 Nasser was selected as captain of the Test team and he proved to be an excellent leader. In his autobiography Sachin Tendulkar has written:
“Among the captains I have played against, I consider Nasser Hussain as the best. He was an excellent strategist. He was a very good thinker and was a proactive leader.”
Later Nasser became better known as a commentator. He has reason to be amply satisfied with his life and achievements. He can take pride in the fact that he showed his teammates how to develop confidence. Moreover his autobiography titled Playing With Fire has won the Best Autobiography prize in the British Sports Books awards. It is one more feather in the cap of this descendant of the Nawab of Arcot.
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