Hussain's blunder over Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen might have become an Essex star if Nasser Hussain had not been so preoccupied trying to restore England's fortunes.

Pietersen, now England's new hot-shot, approached Hussain in Durban five years ago when playing for Natal against the tourists.

"He said he had an English mother and wanted to come to Essex to play club cricket." said Hussain. "At the time I was a little bit more worried about trying to get England back on track because we were ranked the worst Test side in the world.

"So I gave him my brother's telephone number and never thought any more about it - until a couple of years later when I put on teletext and saw Kevin had scored 150 for Notts."

Hussain joked: "I kept that fairly quite in the Essex dressing-room."

Pietersen joined Nottinghamshire in 2001 and has now moved to Hampshire, although his new county may not see much of him this summer if he ends up playing Test matches against Australia as well as one-day cricket.

However, Hussain warned: "The one thing Australia do incredibly well is target you technically, Obviously, with Pietersen, there is a lot of movement across his stumps and he favours the leg side. If Glenn McGrath, or whoever, keeps rolling him over during the one-dayers then there will be a few doubts thrown to the selectors."