Mr Cricket's Triumph

Few cricketers have had to serve such a long apprenticeship in the First-Class game before being given a chance at Test level. Michael Hussey had to wait until he had scored in excess of 15000 runs before he received his beloved baggy green cap in November, 2005. This was immediately after the ill fated Ashes tour of 2005, where England’s battery of fast bowlers exposed the technical deficiencies of most Australians. Since then, Hussey has played in 17 Test matches, and Australia have won 16 of those. Furthermore, he has averaged more than 82 in this sequence. If we delve deeper and remove his Test debut, during which he could not see the ball due to the tears forming in his eyes, Hussey has averaged 89 over a two year period.

Playing in his 18th Test match, on the same ground which he made his maiden century, Hussey scored 132 - a remarkable, and chanceless seventh century in his 28th Test innings.

But to appreciate his effort at Bellerive Oval, or indeed his century at the Gabba in the previous Test, one must look back to May 2007, when Hussey’s world was turned upside down.

Australia had just won an unprecedented third World Cup, and the players had returned home to their families, looking forward to a 4 month break until their next international commitment. Hussey was due to embark on a family holiday with pregnant wife Amy, and their two children, Jasmine and William. Amy developed serious complications in her pregnancy, something affecting a mere 0.2% of pregnancies, of which 50% would not survive.

Their third child, Molly Mae, was born at 28 weeks - 3 months premature - and weighed a mere 1kg, which later dropped to a frightening 900g.

Thankfully, Amy survived this life threatening complication, and Molly has grown steadily.

Hussey recently revealed he contemplated the death of his wife and baby, and today revealed more in a News Ltd interview.

“My whole career could have easily been over. I can't imagine losing my wife and my bub, but if that happened my career would have been finished. That's how I looked at it. I mean, if I lose my wife and child, I'm responsible for looking after our two children. It would have been very difficult for me to keep playing cricket for Australia and travel so much when there are two little ones depending on me. That shook me up. It reinforced to me why I should enjoy every minute in this game.”

Maybe this is the reason behind his successes so far this season. He can be expected to keep producing runs for Australia.