England’s new assistant coach Mike Hussey has suggested he would have taken a harder line than captain Jos Buttler when Australia’s Matthew Wade collided with Mark Wood during Sunday’s T20 in Perth.
Wade appeared to block Wood’s attempts to complete a caught and bowled during the latter stages of the home side’s unsuccessful chase, but Buttler made no attempt to appeal for obstructing the field.
Buttler, who recently said he would recall a batter who was run out at the non-striker’s end in a so-called ‘Mankad’, brushed off the incident after the match by suggesting it was unwise to rock the boat having just arrived Down Under.
But Australia great Hussey, who has temporarily crossed the Ashes divide to mentor English batters during the T20 World Cup, felt differently.
“Obstructing the field doesn’t happen very often at all…I probably would have appealed,” he told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.
“My understanding is the umpires asked Jos if he wanted to appeal and Jos said, ‘oh, don’t worry about it’. It was pretty good thinking I guess to have that clarity of thinking in a pressure situation, to be able to think about the long game rather than that one incident.
“But it would have been interesting if it was just left to the third umpire to make a decision, because I felt as though, watching, he certainly impeded the bowler from a chance to take the catch. It almost needed to be taken out of Jos’ hands and just be left to the third umpire or the umpires out there to make a call on what they thought.”
Hussey admitted it felt unusual to be part of the away dressing room against Australia, but has quickly settled into his role.
“I was a little bit nervous to see what the reaction might be and I must admit, when I first got the training gear and put the shirt on I thought, ‘oh it feels a little bit weird’.
“But then you just get to work. There’s a bigger picture than just Australia versus England and your allegiance to Australia over England.
“I don’t mind who I’m coaching, whether it’s helping Indians, Australians, Englishmen, Dutch, whoever it is. I just like watching players develop.”
The second game of the series takes place in Canberra on Wednesday.
