The name had barely registered when Flintoff used it again last season. "Andrew Symonds overheard and couldn't stop laughing," Hussey says. "I do love the game that much." The title Mr Cricket is appropriate. Hussey was a good Australian football player, a state squash player, has a teaching degree and, now, a young family. But cricket has been the heartbeat of his life since he was 12, about the time he found it more comfortable to bat left-handed than right. He adores the game, analyses it, researches it and respects it. He eats, sleeps and drinks it. Almost literally.

"It doesn't surprise me he's called Mr Cricket," says close friend and former WA teammate Ryan Campbell. "There were times when we were rooming together that he'd wake up yelling out 'Come on, Campbo, run harder!' He knew exactly who we were to face, what he had to do. Even when he was sleeping he wouldn't stop." Hussey laughs when asked about his sleep-talking habit. He's not used to discussing his faults because, frankly, there aren't many. But when pressed he reveals a few. "I'm hopeless at those bloody computer games," he says. "I've tried the Ricky Ponting game and I can't even hit a ball. Hopeless."

Then there's fishing. He tells a story about the day, nearing his Test debut, he hopped in his tinnie and pushed off, but the boat wouldn't start. He'd left the fuel attachment in the car. With the oarless boat drifting out into Perth's Swan River, he realised he had to jump into the water and drag it back to shore. "You can imagine the jeers I got from people in boats and on the shore saying: 'Stick to cricket!'," he says. "Very embarrassing. It seems like every time I take out the boat something goes wrong."

Hussey is a big AFL fan and is friends with Fremantle Dockers star Matthew Pavlich and Andrew Embley, the West Coast Eagles' Norm Smith medallist. But he is convinced he put a curse on the Eagles last year, while listening to the 2005 grand final in a hotel in Pakistan. "I only listened to half the game," he says. "I came in late and the Eagles had kicked away by 20 points. I listened for a while and Sydney got back level. I thought, 'Bugger this, I'll go away,' and the Eagles kicked away again. I came back for the final quarter and Sydney got up to win. I'm sure I was to blame." Campbell adds that Hussey's no good at changing the nappies of his children, Jasmin and William. And he's not the best 500 card game partner. "There's a couple of weaknesses," he says. "But not a lot."

HUSSEY was not destined to play for Australia. Few at his Perth club, Wanneroo, rated the reedy and shy teenager. But there was someone who saw potential - future international Damien Martyn. Martyn was a blessed batsman. Hussey wasn't. But Martyn and club coach Ian Kevan selected him in the A's.

"He had the technique," says Kevan, a lifelong mentor to Hussey. "The concern was whether he had the toughness. He was quiet, very modest and a bit shy. When I told him he was playing in A's, he was terrified, probably thinking, 'I'd like to play thirds, maybe seconds'." He scored only a few runs on debut but battled some handy fast bowlers and kept his spot. In his third game, Hussey hit 88. His confidence rose but Martyn remained streets ahead. "I don't think I'd hit puberty yet," Hussey says, laughing. "I was too scared to have a shower. I was a very small kid and didn't think I deserved to be there. Damien made the call to pick me but about all I could do back then was glide the ball behind square.

"I'd be grafting away and there was Damien smashing it around. "I remember one time when Marto and I put on 160, he told me he didn't want to hit a boundary, so he made 80 or 90 chipping it around calling twos and threes. It was amazing."

Hussey knew he had to gain weight, get stronger and practise. So he did. A lot. "We'd have hits four times a week," Kevan says. "We counted it one night - 900 to 1000 balls a session. He'd work on skills, bat swings, fitness. "By the time he got to the [cricket] academy, he could do anything they wanted from him three times over."

Which literally happened. When Hussey was playing for Australia A, coach Allan Border suggested jokingly that he have a six-hour training session to mimic a day's play. Bat for two hours, 40-minute break, bat for two hours, 20-minute break, bat for another two hours. "And Michael did it," Kevan says. "There wouldn't be two idiots in Australia who'd do that. Marto certainly wouldn't."

It wasn't a one-off. Campbell remembers a day when Wanneroo had a bye. "He made Ian Kevan take him to the nets for six hours," he says. "I went to the beach. That's why I played two games for Australia and Huss will play 1000." Hussey also once told Rod Marsh, the then academy coach, that he thought the players were not being trained hard enough. "I told him that I worked harder back at home," Hussey says. "After that he killed us and made an example of me. "I wasn't trying to be a smart-arse, I was just saying we should work harder. From then on he really worked us over. It was probably the best winter of my life."

THE KEY to Hussey's exceptional work ethic is his father Ted, a former sprinter who missed a Commonwealth Games because of injury but became an athletics coach and often had Michael and brother David (himself a potential Test batsman) scaling sand dunes. "He never made us do it, but he suggested it was good idea," Hussey says. "We actually liked it. Every winter, guys from the club would come over on Sunday mornings, we'd kill ourselves on the dunes, come back, have lunch and watch the footy in the afternoon. It was good.

"Our parents impressed on us that you don't get anywhere without hard work. Dad didn't know about cricket, but he knew what it took to be successful, that single-mindedness. A lot of it, though, we were born with - the desire to be the best." That was evident in the competition between the brothers. "Dave and I fought a lot, massive punch-ups," he says. "If there was a Spirit of Cricket thing back then we would have been in big trouble."

In his late teens, with his body filling out, Hussey had to choose which sport to pursue. He steered away from footy because "I was still quite small at 17 and used to get the shit beaten out of me". He lost interest in squash because it was an individual sport. He made his debut for the Warriors in 1994 and looked set to progress after prolific seasons in English county cricket. The baggy green, however, would remain elusive until after the 2005 Ashes series, which many believe Hussey should have played in, given his impressive one-day form.

When he did get picked - after a record 15,313 first-class runs - it took only 166 days for him to reach 1000 Test runs, also a record. He is now an automatic pick in the side, captained the team in a recent one-day tournament and on a popular cricket website was voted the overwhelming favourite to be next Australian captain. Publicly, Hussey's reputation has rocketed in the past 12 months. But those who have watched his progress are not surprised.

"He always had plans," Campbell says. "He once showed me a list of things he believed we needed to do to be a successful opening partnership and I said, 'Mate, you lost me after the first one'. "Every off season, he'd work on particular shots. It was amazing. He's got to the point where he can pull apart his game and piece it back together. He can change his game depending on the team's needs - click into one-day mode in Test cricket, and vice versa."

Journalists have baited Hussey, expecting him to criticise the selectors for not picking him sooner. He wouldn't bite. But, reflecting on a great year, he reveals his conclusion. "I would have loved to have played a lot earlier," he says. "I probably wouldn't have been 100 per cent ready, but I would have loved the opportunity to make my mistakes and learn that way. "That's why Michael Clarke will be such a great player. He's experienced success at the top level. But also he's been through not having the success he would have liked.

"There were definitely times I thought I'd never play for Australia. It took me a long time, but I don't think age should come into it too much. "There is a shelf life, but I think while a guy is giving to the team and performing well, you should be picked on merit. I had to earn it and I want to make sure the next bloke has to earn his chance as I had to. That will make for a better Australian team in the future."