The Two Tons

‘NASSER Hussain turned towards the media centre on scoring his hundred yesterday in response to some of the obituaries that have been written for his career in recent days.

Nasser always did prefer an attack-minded stance at the crease

But anyone coming to bury the former England captain is this morning full of praise for a gutsy innings that has helped England to a good position in the third Test at Trent Bridge.

Hussain finished the day unbeaten on 108, with England 296-3 after a sparkling century from Mark Butcher and an unbeaten 40 from debutant Ed Smith.

The Telegraph’s Derek Pringle salutes the 229-ball innings, which he says ”had plenty of what the Australians call mongrel, an affectionate term for guts and character”.

”Captaincy changed him for the better in many ways, but his return to the ranks will mean a return to type and succeeding largely on his own terms,” he says.

Another player who plays on his own terms is the Cambridge-educated Ed Smith, whose brain and background have apparently been the cause of a bit of mickey-taking.

”He has been an endless source of amusement,” Mark Butcher tells the Times, ”especially for the Yorkshire boys.

”They have never heard anybody speak before like Ed. At the crease, he looks like a million dollars, which is probably what he has got tucked away somewhere.”

If he has, there are plenty of football clubs who would love to see it.

This morning, as Premiership clubs prepare to start their season, the Times profiles Bryan Richardson, Geoffrey Richmond and Peter Ridsdale – three football club chairman whose clubs managed to run up combined debts of £150m while they were in charge, but are still in the game.

”You would think that clubs would base appointments on what recruits have done in the past,” says Roy Whalley, of Walsall.

”Yet there are some characters who make you wonder how they’re still in the game.”

Still in the game is Colin Montgomerie, Europe’s best player for a record seven years in a row but a perennial underachiever in the major championships.

And he is surely soon to be on his way home from the USPGA after an opening 82 left him 16 shots behind Phil Mickelson at Oak Hill.

Both men, the Indy says, have been described as the best players never to have won a major. It is a mantle Monty might wear on his own come Monday morning.

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Posted: 15th, August 2003 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink