Nasser Hussain - Early Years

Early Years

Hussain was born of an Indian Muslim father, Jawad Hussain (also known as "Joe"), and mother Patricia. Hussain was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow, and then received a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Durham. His father and brother, Mehriyar Hussain, have both played first-class cricket, for Tamil Nadu and Worcestershire, respectively.

As a child, Nasser's first experiences of cricket were family visits to Chepauk, where his elder brothers Mehriyar (Mel) and Abbas used to bat on the outfield while he chased after the ball. Jawad Hussain moved with his family to England in 1975, and later took charge of the indoor cricket school in Ilford where Nasser used to bowl for hours on end at his elder brothers, and not just because he was the youngest: he was a naturally talented leg-spin bowler. With his talent starting to show, at just eight years old, Nasser was selected to play for the Essex Under-11s, and at 12 years old he was the youngest to play for Essex Under-15s.

At the age of 14 Hussain was selected to play for England Schools where he first came into contact with his friend and future England colleague Mike Atherton. Born five days apart, Hussain and Mike Atherton soon found their careers progressing in parallel as they captained, batted and bowled legspin for England age-group teams.

As well as Atherton, who was considered the "Golden Boy" of the North at the time, Hussain played with and against others such as Mark Ramprakash, Graham Thorpe and Trevor Ward. But at the age of 15, and captain of England Schools, Hussain suddenly lost his ability to bowl. In the off season Hussain "grew a foot in height in the winter" and the trajectory of his bowling was therefore altered. He recounts "I went from bowling out Graham Gooch in the indoor school with everyone watching, to hitting the roof of the net or bowling triple-bouncers to deadly silence."

Hussain's father initially refused to accept that his son couldn't bowl to the previous high standards and continued to push him into bowling, while Hussain, full of frustration at his sudden loss of ability felt he was letting his father down. For a while he dropped behind his contemporaries; boys like Atherton, Ramprakash and Martin Bicknell were beginning to receive professional county contracts while Hussain was missing out on representative games and England tours. So Hussain took the decision to make himself a batsman. Luckily he was still captain of Essex under-16s and so moved himself up the order to get more runs and to bowl less. His determination paid off and his batting progressed, and in that year he became the first boy at Forest to score 1000 runs in a season since 1901.

Hussain himself admits that batting never came as naturally to him as leg-spin bowling. Vestiges of this manufacturing process remain in his technique: he bats with little left elbow and plenty of bottom hand, and backs up with the bat in his right hand.