Michael Hussey has rejected the prospect to turn into England’s Take a look at batting coach in favour of an element‑time cope with Cricket Australia.
The previous Australia batter held talks final month with Stephen Fleming, England’s new Take a look at head coach, about becoming a member of his backroom group however is known to have opted to remain in Australia in a lift for Pat Cummins’s aspect earlier than the Ashes subsequent 12 months.
Hussey is believed to have accepted Cricket Australia’s provide of a consultancy function because it provides him the pliability to proceed with current commitments, equivalent to teaching within the Hundred and different franchise tournaments, in addition to commentary and punditry work for Fox Sports activities in Australia.
The 51‑12 months‑previous was Welsh Fireplace’s head coach within the Hundred this 12 months and has labored as a batting coach for Chennai Tremendous Kings within the Indian Premier League.
Fleming labored carefully with Hussey throughout 18 years at CSK as a participant and coach which ended this 12 months, however he has been unable to steer him to affix England.
Hussey coached England on an element‑time advisor contract throughout their victorious T20 World Cup marketing campaign in 2022, however a full-time function as Take a look at batting coach would have been much more onerous given this winter options excursions to South Africa, Bangladesh and Australia earlier than the house Ashes sequence subsequent summer time.
Australia’s Take a look at schedule is simply as intense, however Hussey will probably be allowed to suit his teaching duties round different commitments.
Fleming will probably be permitted to proceed trying to find a batting coach, though the England and Wales Cricket Board could choose to retain Marcus Trescothick, who has impressed in a caretaker function within the present Take a look at sequence towards Pakistan.
If Trescothick stays with the Take a look at group the ECB may choose to nominate a brand new head of batting teaching throughout all their growth groups.
Cricket Australia and the ECB declined to remark.
The previous Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq, in the meantime, has resigned from the nationwide choice committee after the choice on Monday to drop seven players and change coaches two-thirds via the group’s Take a look at sequence towards England.
It has emerged that after these selections have been introduced by the Pakistan Cricket Board they contacted selectors searching for written explanations for a few of their picks, together with these of Imam-ul-Haq, who having began the second recreation spent most of it off the sphere nursing a calf harm, and the wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.
Rizwan’s choice didn’t appear controversial: he’s Pakistan’s third-highest run-scorer of the previous decade, was second of their scoring charts in 2024 and 2025, and Babar Azam is now the one Pakistani batter above him within the Worldwide Cricket Council rankings.
However his holding was criticised through the Lord’s Take a look at final week, and through the first recreation towards Bangladesh in Might – one of many aspect’s 5 defeats in six Exams this 12 months – the Bangladesh wicketkeeper Litton Das was overheard saying: “His status is unhealthy in his nation. If he tries to hit and will get out, he gained’t be capable of enter his nation. His status is de facto unhealthy.”
The choice to overtake the squad mid-series has been extensively criticised in Pakistan. Shahid Afridi wrote that he was “undecided what’s the logic or reasoning behind the choice” and that “the replacements make no sense”. Shoaib Malik, like Afridi a former Take a look at captain, wrote that “accountability ought to begin with those that broke the system, not with gamers”, including that “such psychological stress” would trigger “the concern of failure [to] settle within the minds of our gamers”.
Further reporting by Simon Burnton
