Made in Madras

Jai Natarajan

The most abiding image of England's memorable win over Pakistan is a photo of Nasser Hussain in the dressing room, sitting alone, his whites covered with mud, surrounded by cricketing equipment, weeping into a towel.

Make no mistake about it -- they were tears of utter joy and release. The very fact that even this moment was not immune from a roving camera indicates the pressures and the ceaseless torment of leadership in English cricket.

It had, in recent years, gotten the better of two men of steel who jointly played their hundredth Tests not many weeks ago. Both Alec Stewart and Mike Atherton stood proud, having given their all to their successor, the boy from Madras, Nasser Hussain.

The natural question arises: is this another false dawn for English cricket? After all, Alec Stewart too had the satisfaction of beating South Africa 2-1 at home before it all came horribly unstuck on the Ashes tour and in the World Cup. However, the signs are positive and it looks as though England may at least have arrived at the corner, if not having turned it just as yet.

Let us acknowledge, for now, the fact that Hussain has just completed two series victories which any England captain from Brearley to Botham would give his eyeteeth (or even his mother-in-law) to have had. The first win over the wretched West Indies in over three decades has been followed by an even more precious win over Pakistan after 38 years. Nasser Hussain's amazing journey from his home town of Madras, through the ranks of age-group cricket, to the very top of his adopted country, has been a fine saga of willpower and mental toughness.

When he inherited the team it was in shambles. Alec Stewart had just presided over a humiliating demise in the World Cup. The establishment was torn over issues of payment, contracts, coaching and domestic structure. The batting line-up was scarred and fragile as England struggled game after game to put up scores capable of dictating a Test match. Techniques and temperaments were called into question as player after player -- Nick Knight, John Crawley, Mark Butcher, Aftab Habib -- demonstrated fatal flaws in their technique. Most days it was a struggle to even put together a fully fit eleven, with the somewhat absurd sight of a string of sturdily built seamers permanently checked into sick bay. That most largehearted of players (pun intended), Darren Gough, had expressed doubts over his future in the game. A cloud of insecurity followed Andy Caddick around. Graeme Hick was the Grand Illusion and Mark Ramprakash refused to show any signs of life. Graham Thorpe took the winter off. No quality spinners were on the horizon, colorful cricketers were shunned and a revolving door guarded the entrance to the national team. Sponsors were starting to grumble and the press pulled no punches in their criticisms.

Several significant changes coincided with or just preceded Hussain's arrival as captain. In hindsight it is facile to claim these were obvious and clearly correct. At the time they were fiercely debated, even opposed by vested interests.

Probably most important was the arrival of Duncan Fletcher as national coach. For the English team to turn to a man from Zimbabwe is in itself a political miracle of sorts. A curious bunch of fellows had preceded him in this job, most recently David Lloyd, known as "Bumble". Their style appeared to be to talk a lot and air a lot of emotional analysis for the press but they achieved very little in terms of bringing the team out of its slump. Fletcher was a quiet, phlegmatic type with no preconceptions and beholden to none. His years in Zimbabwe had taught him the art of stitching a whole greater than the sum of the parts (India will be wise to seek the same qualities in John Wright).

The system of central contracts was another development which put the top level of players on notice. It took them out of the grind of county cricket and made a commitment to reserving their best for the country. Some surprising choices were made and some derision occured when early on, some of the contracted players were promptly dropped from the 14. But more on this later.

The rapport between Hussain and Fletcher was excellent. Both shared a view of the big picture and a strategy of slow and steady upward targets for the team to meet. Cutting out the bombastic hype and vacuous wordiness of past team management, they were constantly reminding everyone of the baby steps the team was taking and the distance ahead.

To them also goes credit for another significant step. In the past, captains schooled in the grim and uncompromising school of Graham Gooch had shied away from working with "difficult" individuals, notably hastening the end of Gower and Robin Smith, and alienating the likes of Jack Russell and Phil Tuffnell. Hussain had no such prejudices. In a short time he showed himself willing to work with several difficult players, not least Dominic Cork who had publicly denounced him. Craig White and Ashley Giles also reappeared while the neurotic Andy Caddick started to blossom under Hussain's encouragement.

Hussain's first series was infamously lost as the selectors tinkered and the New Zealanders fought back from a loss in the first test to win 2-1. A rejuvenated Chris Cairns provided the spark in a low-scoring series as England were embarassed at home.

Fletcher and Hussain urged patience as England went to South Africa. They were expected to be swept away on tour. At this stage the selectors were still struggling to pick a sound squad. Some bold experiments with youth were ushered in but in the end England was let down by technically flawed batsmen like Chris Adams. Viewers grudgingly admitted England did not do as badly as expected - they might even have worked their way up to being mediocre. Hussain's early form waned but England limited SA to a 2-1 margin, with a morale boosting win at Centurion (later tainted by Cronjegate). In a series marked by poor batsmanship on both sides Michael Vaughan emerged as find for the future.

The most remarkable statistic, however, was that both Darren Gough and Andy Caddick played all five Tests uninjured. They had a poor series but for the first time, England had a steady opening pair. The gains were consolidated against Zimbabwe and by the time the West Indies arrived, both these remarkable men had regained their appetite for the game at the top level.

Twin collapses cost England the first Test but they never looked back from there. In the second Test Dominic Cork and Craig White returned from the wilderness. In Hussain they found a man to follow into battle and England completed a 3-1 series victory made possible by a splendid all-round effort. Problems with batting continued - only three centuries were recorded in the series, the English ones by that youthful duo of Stewart and Atherton. But England's seam attack blew the West Indians out of the water.

Which brings us, as is so often the case in any interesting saga concerning cricket, to Pakistan. Detractors can carp about the insignificance of beating Zimbabwe and this shadow of the West Indies. But Hussain's men arrived in Pakistan under immense pressure, to face an incredibly talented team. Hussain had two weapons so secret even he was unaware of them - an unknown Ashley Giles and the Kafkaesque Pakistan Cricket Board. Caddick and Gough did little in the series but they had already won it as they touched down, for Pakistan planned a completely defensive strategy on slow brown turners. And so, in the typically surreal scenario, Waqar, Wasim and Mushtaq took turns warming the bench and swallowing the sight of Craig White smashing 93 at Lahore and Ashley Giles spinning them out at Karachi.

Hussain turns his sights on Sri Lanka now, and the big battle lies ahead next year, the Ashes. He and Fletcher are continuously fine-tuning this revival. This is no flowery David Lloyd sleight-of-hand. They are still trying to get this side on its batting feet. All too often it boils down to Atherton and Stewart, and now a rejuvenated Thorpe. The young guns need to pitch in with some big knocks. On the plus side is this momentum as a team. There are a couple of good finds in Trescothick and Vaughan, a promise of a better future for Giles and White, the renewed appetites of Stewart, Atherton and Thorpe, and the yet-to-be-fulfilled promise of Flintoff. The seam attack has teeth in it, and plenty of depth with Tudor, Hoggard and Headley in reserve. On the minus side are the Grand Hick Enigma, Hussain's personal form, some woes with fielding, and the aging of the team. There are not many quality players pushing the senior citizens for places in the side. That will take more time and effort back home.

You can bet that Fletcher and Hussain will be thinking hard about these issues, and that there are better times ahead for England. There is no blueprint for renewal, but the West Indies and India should watch very very closely indeed.

Meanwhile, it is Hussain's time to cry with joy and laugh with tears. One wonders if the irony has struck him, that just as Indian engineers are on their way to fix the railroad in Britain, this lad from Madras well on his way to fixing cricket in England. We wish him well.

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