Top 105 Quotes & Sayings by Nasser Hussain - Page 2

Captaining England is the best job I've ever had and the last thing I would want to do after more than four years is hand the Test job over to someone who wasn't up to it.

It's not an issue for me if I captain England in 42 Tests or in 50. It's a question of what is best for the team in Test and one-day cricket.

I play hard and I play to win, and my team play for me because of the backing I show them.

Every player needs to be aware of the levels of fitness needed to play international cricket.

Above all, I want to captain England in more Test victories than anybody else.

What you don't want from a player is to walk off and say 'that's the way I play.'

With all my bats I like them to be bottom-heavy, so they help me to hold the line through the shot.

You should not be flat playing for your country.

Politicians as diverse as Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe have been quoted at our team meetings. That is how political England cricket tours have become.

I'm never going to have a Test average of 50 like Tendulkar. All I want to be is the best that I can be.

I want to captain England in more Tests than anyone else.

It sounds sycophantic, but I don't think I have met anyone in cricket who gives so much to a team as Marcus Trescothick does to England.

I want to play 100 Test matches for England.

Trescothick hates it if somebody starts taking the micky or running other people down - which can happen a lot in some dressing-rooms - and he makes sure he stamps it out.

Normally I don't sleep much during a Test match.

A captain has to be able to look a player in the eye before he starts his run-up or goes out to bat.

Nothing worse than walking out in a Test match and finding your hand slipping on the handle.

I believe we should come down very firmly on the guilty without infringing the civil liberties of the innocent, like publishing mobile phone bills.

It was Test cricket as it should be played, when the irresistible force in Allan Donald met the immovable object in Mike Atherton at Trent Bridge in 1998. And I was happy to watch from the best seat in the house - at the other end.

Test match cricket is about individual brilliance.

There is nothing worse after a long car journey than to have to go to meetings.

Edgbaston is a ground where you have to think on your feet because it can vary so much from season to season or session to session.

You travel the world and you talk to people about Jos Buttler, and they rave about this lad. I don't like massive comments, but he'd have to be up there with the three or four greatest white-ball players of all time. You're talking Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni, Viv Richards.

When I first came into the England one-day side and joined the selectors, I wanted to move away from picking what some people called the bits-and-pieces to the best batsmen and bowlers.

I can't pick up a pair of new gloves like Alec Stewart or Mike Atherton. I have to get them sweaty and loose, and put extra stuff on my gloves to protect the fingers.

Being awarded the OBE was a great honour and something I had not been expecting.

If we are going to win games, we need 11 fit players. Sir Alex Ferguson does not pick half-fit players.

My philosophy is to respect the opposition off the field and play it as tough as possible on it.

In the longer term we have got to learn how to bowl on flat pitches if England are to head the ICC Championship table.

If you are not 100 per cent, Virender Sehwag or Chris Cairns will destroy you.

I always used the media - if people were having a go I could use it as motivation to prove them wrong.

You have to try to move your feet and get to the pitch to hit the spinners away.

I'm not naive and realise it doesn't make good commentary or sell newspapers if you only say nice things, and the time does come when you have to say someone isn't good enough and has to go. But commentators like Richie Benaud have shown that criticism can be made in a constructive or humorous way.

Batsmen like Gary Kirsten, Boeta Dippenaar and Neil McKenzie have good techniques and can bat for long periods.

The Australians are a weird bunch - until the cricket starts they're really friendly, saying 'good luck' all the time, but the moment the cricket begins they have a real go at you.

Sometimes we don't build up our own cricketers enough.

One-day cricket is about continuity, team ethic, understanding each other's role, where everybody fields and bats, when and at which end they want to bowl.

I feel, as a captain, that when you face a batsman who plays spin well you feel as if you are a fielder short.

If a player sits out a tour, it is not a problem, because it is a chance to look at others.

Sometimes you don't realise what you've got, because it's right in front of you.

Graeme Smith is capable of reading other people's heads.

They (Leeds United) used to be a bit like Arsenal, winning by one goal to nil or even less.

In the past two or three years, the number of clubs has doubled ... we've got close to 8 000 players, about 60 to 80 clubs. It's not restricted to the metros any more, it's gone rural.

Australia played some good cricket, but they have forgotten how to win.

Sourav Ganguly has been an excellent captain, his record speaks for himself. I found him to be a tough competitor and every Indian should feel proud of Sourav.