London, May 02: England Test captain Nasser Hussain said he hoped his decision to retire from international one-day cricket would have the same effect on him as Australian counterpart Steve Waugh. Unlike Hussain, who announced in March he was quitting limited overs internationals after England`s first round World Cup exit, Waugh was dropped from the Australia one-day team and played no part in the successful defence of their world title in South Africa.
But Hussain said this had left Waugh better prepared for the rigours of Test cricket.
"During the winter I saw Steve Waugh turn up for the Melbourne Test, refreshed and ready to perform after working on his batting in a game or two for New South Wales while the one-day series was going on," Hussain said. "He had time to himself while Ricky Ponting (Australia`s one-day captain) talked to the media and he came back with a point to prove, which is always dangerous in cricket," the 35-year-old Essex batsman explained.
"In the same way, I would like to get back to doing what I wanted to do when a boy - to play Test cricket for England, not be a national spokesman for everything cricketing," Hussain, recently chosen as one of Wisden`s five cricketers of the year, said. "That`s what the job turned into after I took over in 1999. All forms of cricket and a lot else besides, like politics, landed at my door and I became a spokesman for the side," said Hussain in a reference to the controversy surrounding England`s boycott of their World Cup match in Zimbabwe. Bureau Report