By IANS,
London : Jawad Hussain, a former Ranji Trophy cricketer who gave England its first Indian-born cricket captain, has died.
Jawad – better known as Joe – Hussain, whose Chennai-born son Nasser captained England from 1999 to 2003, passed away Saturday after a long illness.
A passionate cricketer, Joe Hussain was a popular coach of several county players in the town of Ilford.
He is credited with developing the talents of not only Nasser – one of England’s most successful recent captains – but also England players Ravi Bopara, James Foster and Varun Chopra.
Joe Hussain played only one first-class match, for the erstwhile Madras side against Andhra Pradesh in the 1964-65 Ranji Trophy – a game that Madras won.
Hussain was born in Chennai, but described himself as 70 percent Chennai and 30 percent Bangalorean because his mother came from Karnataka.
After finishing a science degree from Loyola College in Chennai, he migrated to England in 1963 where he met and married his English wife Patricia.
He returned to Chennai two years later where Nasser was born in 1968.
“We were a cricket mad family,” Joe Hussain said some years ago. “I used to play for the Madras Cricket Club. I used to play all my cricket there.”
The family returned to England in 1975, where Hussain ran his successful indoor cricket school.