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| | Wednesday, 3 April, 2002, 09:37 GMT 10:37 UK England heads held high The spoils were shared after the series ended 1-1 Captain Nasser Hussain insisted England had made important strides forward as a Test side this winter despite finishing their New Zealand tour with defeat in Auckland. It cost them victory in the three-match series and meant they slipped below the Kiwis to fifth place in the International Cricket Council Test Championship table. "I'm not interested in the Test table. I'm more interested in how we are going to beat Sri Lanka this summer, and how on earth we are going to win an Ashes series [next winter]."
He added: "New Zealand are a very resilient side and they are very hard to break down. "We knew that, and we knew we would have to be at our best. We were off for an hour, maybe two hours in this game and got caught." The match swung New Zealand's way on the fourth evening when the final session continued under floodlights, even though the England fielders were struggling to see the ball. Hussain brought the matter to the attention of umpire Srinivas Venkataraghavan and believes the International Cricket Council should look again at the issue. No complaint "He agreed with me, but he pointed out that in the history of the game no fielding side was taken off for bad light and I would have to talk to the ICC about it. I had no real problem with that," said Hussain. "The last thing I want to do is be like a whingeing England captain after a great Test, but things like fielding under lights need to be looked at by the ICC.
"That's not the players' job, but the administrators." Hussain praised the contribution of the newer faces in the squad despite trying circumstances in India and New Zealand - most notably following news of the death of one-day teammate Ben Hollioake in a car crash in Australia. "We've got a lot of young guys breaking into Test cricket like Andy Flintoff, Ashley Giles, James Foster and Matthew Hoggard. These blokes coming along and doing well is good for English cricket. "Their heart and effort and the way they have stuck to the plans have been very good and they probably deserved a lot more from this series. "We need to get more runs and get these 20s and 30s out of our system. We'll do better then, but we have also got to keep positive, as we were at the beginning of today." He added: "I've never seen a bunch of lads faced with such difficult times in India and difficult times here - on and off the field. "I'd like to thank my team for keeping their heads held high." | |
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