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Hussain looking for spirit of Sabina

Sabina Park, Kingston, holds fond memories for Nasser Hussain.

It was at the Jamaica ground on March 1, 1990, that England, including new boy Hussain, beat the all-conquering West Indies in a Test for the first time in 16 years.

Nearly ten years on, Hussain recalls that a key element in England's triumph was the inclusion of players who had never tasted defeat at the hands of the West Indies.

As he now prepares for his first overseas assignment as England captain, Hussain hopes the composition of his squad for the tour of South Africa will have a similar effect on the country's cricket fortunes.

England, bottom of the unofficial Test rankings after losing a four-match home series against New Zealand last season, have included four uncapped players in their party of 17 while four others have only nine Test caps between them.

''It's a similar basis to how I came into the Test side in 1990, going to the West Indies with Gus Fraser, Alec Stewart, Devon Malcolm and Gladstone Small,'' Hussain said.

''People like that hadn't played for England, and we won the first Test in Jamaica because we didn't have any of the baggage of losing to West Indies before. We just went out and enjoyed ourselves.

''Hopefully, that's what this younger-looking side, with a few senior players threaded through it, can do (in South Africa).''

Hussain did not establish himself as an England regular until six years after that 1990 Caribbean tour, by which time his growing maturity and fiercely determined middle order batting brought him back in favour with the national selectors.

Then came the captaincy after England failed to go beyond the first round of the World Cup last season, though Hussain endured a frustrating first series against New Zealand in which a broken finger curtailed his appearance in the second Test and ruled him out of the third of the four Tests.

Hussain is a firm believer in his players taking individual responsibility, and is less concerned at the moment with putting his mark on the team.

''I will always try and get the extra ten per cent out of someone,'' he said. ''At the end of the day, if you can go and say something to a player that might inspire him to do something great the next day, then I'll be there doing that.

''But the captain is only the little percentage on top (of the team). We must all look at the statistics over the past few years, see where we've been going wrong, (poor) first innings batting and things like that, and really work to get those areas right.

''I think that's much more important to this team, and to English cricket at the moment, than my personal stamping of any more authority on the team.''

UNI