Michael Hussey qualified to be a teacher, but he's so level-headed it's hard to imagine him ever raising his voice at a student. So when he was ruled out of Australia's World Cup squad and spoke out strongly about why he felt he deserved to be picked, it was extra noteworthy. The man who doesn't sledge and doesn't criticise was not going to be silenced on this occasion.
But the selectors had made their decision. Hussey was recuperating from surgery for a serious hamstring injury and with Ricky Ponting also recovering from his broken finger, the Australians were unwilling to risk taking two batsmen who were not fully fit. One month later Hussey has his opportunity, courtesy Doug Bollinger's ankle injury, and he's pinching himself ahead of Sunday's match against Kenya in Bangalore.
"I pretty much thought I wouldn't get another chance to play in a World Cup," Hussey said. "That was doubly disappointing because I had set myself the goal coming in to this year to be involved in the T20 World Cup, the Ashes and the World Cup. They were my three big goals to be part of those teams. When I was ruled it was a pretty bitter pill to take, but unbelievably I find myself here, so it's great news.
"I found it pretty difficult to take for a while, but I then used all that energy and emotion to rehab and get better as fast as I could. The rule, we thought, was that if there was an injury I couldn't be the one to come in and replace. I don't know if the rules changed or if we misinterpreted them, but it was good news from my point of view to think that there was still a glimmer of hope that I could still be involved."
Hussey had been focused on getting fit for Australia's one-day tour of Bangladesh, which immediately follows the World Cup. Now he finds himself parachuted in to the middle of a campaign that has started well, with victories over Zimbabwe and New Zealand, before the much-anticipated clash with Sri Lanka was washed out in Colombo.
Victory over Kenya would confirm Australia's place in the quarter-finals, but their goal is to finish at the top of the Group A table, to give them the best chance of facing a weaker opponent in the sudden-death rounds. And as the business end of the tournament approaches, it will be important for Hussey to rush straight into the side and get acclimatised to the subcontinent conditions.
It could be Hussey's brother David, or Cameron White, or Steven Smith, who makes way, but whatever the case, there will be plenty of attention on how Hussey performs. He said he had been overwhelmed with the positive feedback to his call-up, but all the same, the month-long debate about his place in the squad means that a couple of failures might not go down so well.
"I don't want to try to put any extra pressure on myself," he said. "Similar to the Ashes, there's always so much speculation and so much pressure and so much hype and all of the distractions around the team. But for me I just try to put all of those things out of my mind and concentrate on what's important and that's doing my job in the team."
And at 35, Hussey has no plans to call an end to that job just yet. Last year, he told ESPNcricinfo that his plan was to fight for a place in the World Twenty20, the Ashes and the World Cup, and then reassess. Now, he's starting to cast his eyes beyond the last one of those major events.
"I'm pretty keen to keep playing," Hussey said. "The key factors for me are am I still contributing to the team, am I enjoying the contest out in the middle, and if I'm still enjoying playing for Australia and doing all the travel and the training and still trying to motivate myself to get better. At the moment I still feel like I'm ticking all those boxes. While I'm doing that I want to continue to play. It took me so long to get just one game for Australia, so I don't want to pull up stumps on anything too soon."
Of course, there is a career in education he can eventually fall back on. But for now, there are plenty of opponents he'd still like to teach a lesson.
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