Some Hussain thoughts of what went wrong

Johannesburg - No, Nasser Hussain was not about to replace his "put on your best Sunday smile" with something as inane as a "Cap'n Grumpy" frown or a defiant "Cap'n Cock Up" scowl.

Even though, as we hear in the media stalls at the Wanderers he switched his call of "tails" to one of "heads" on that fateful Thursday morning when Hansie Cronje tossed the coin and Hussain condemned himself to three and a bit days of mental torture.

The one thing he did learn about South Africa is that while the city of gold is a hard, rough place and there is no place, let alone room, for error, the Wanderers has become an inhospitable venue. The Test pitch was underdone, the game poorly marketed and under sold and questions again surface about the timing of when to host a game in the bullring.

While the Gauteng Cricket Board may blame the weather and starting the game on a Thursday instead of the Friday to get a better deal with bigger weekend crowds there is the impression that Johannesburg citizens are spoilt and really do not deserve to have a Test at all. Give them an extra limited-overs match; slogs is about all they understand.

Not that SABC radio sports boss, Koos Radebe, understands the need for ball-by-ball commentary. The man whom it seems, would not know the difference between an Allan Donald beamer or bouncer, talks about being bothered that the national broadcaster is feeding an elitist audience when by shutting off ball by ball he is denying thousands of black children the chance to listen to the game they have adopted.

When you consider there were about 15 SABC staff members in the Wanderers media centre during the three and a bit days, all tucking in to the free food and drink, it is easy to see why the SABC is losing touch with their audience, it was losing touch with itself as well.

At least Hussain showed this afternoon that he has not lost touch with reality.

He posed the logical question of how the game might have turned out had he indeed got the call right and put South Africa in to bat. No one can answer that one; at least he was trying to explain that losing the toss, a crucial one, had forced his side to walk the plank.

Two world class bowlers doing their job, England two runs on the board and the Test plans already in ruins. Ironically it was a little like that 10 summers ago when Mike Gatting's rebel's were also ambushed by Donald: four in each innings and under sullen skies another game over in three days.

"It would have been interesting as it would have tests us," said Hussain. "It would have shown how far we have come had we bowled in conditions like that.

"I'm not saying that we would have won the game. And I am going to keep repeating that we are not going to use this as an excuse in any way. A lot of credit must be given to the South Africans: their two bowlers and two batsmen showed how to bowl and bat in those conditions," was Hussain's frank assessment.

Yet their were positives for England from the match. One was captaining Andy Caddick, which Hussain found had been "a breath of fresh air" as he wanted to bowl all the time as well as bat and he was showing a lot of determination.

It was not all Caddick did this and wanted to do that though. Hussain had others to talk about for the British media to chew over.

"Michael Vaughan's composure on debut in the first innings against the best two bowlers in the world, (Andrew) Flintoff's attitude throughout the game, Alec Stewart in the second innings, the way we have not collapsed down the order as we have done in the past," were some of his comments.

He also promised a lot of hard work and a hard day's net training at the Wanderers on what should have been the last day of the Test; watching videos of the match and thoughts from Hussain and the coach, Duncan Fletcher. "Areas of their side we can work on and areas on our own side we can work on," he said with calm assurance.