David Hussey, who will re-join Notts for the 2010 season, featured in Nottinghamshire’s top ten overseas players in the August edition of Covered, the official magazine of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club.


1 Richard Hadlee

A true Notts legend, Hadlee topped the First Class batting averages in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1987and was the first bowler in history to take 400 Test wickets. His international record was exemplary with 36 five-fers helping to maintain a bowling average of 22.29 and a batting average of 27.16 in 86 Tests.

The son of former New Zealand Captain Walter, Richard made his debut for Canterbury in 1971, batting alongside elder brother Dayle in a formidable opening partnership. He took 6-26 in the second innings at Wellington in 1978 to secure New Zealand’s first Test victory over England.

That year, he joined Notts and remained on the staff until 1987, playing whenever injuries and Test calls allowed. He helped Notts do the double in 1987, taking 97 wickets at 11.89. Hadlee was knighted in 1990 for services to cricket.

2 Garry Sobers
Nottinghamshire were one of seven Counties to bid for Sobers’ services ahead of the 1968 season and the investment paid off with the Barbados-born allrounder averaging 42.97 in his first season. Best remembered for his six sixes in the most talked about over of all time, Sobers received a Knighthood in 1975 and was selected as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Century in 2000.

He led West Indies to their first ever Test series win over Australia and maintained a Test batting average of 57.78.

3 Clive Rice
Mick Newell’s predecessor as Director of Cricket, Rice captained Nottinghamshire to Championship wins in 1981 and 1987. His international career was restricted to just three appearances in One Day Internationals due to South Africa’s isolation, although he captained South Africa against rebel tourists throughout the 1980s.

Rice returned to Trent Bridge in 1999, replacing Alan Ormrod as Director of Cricket and tempting Kevin Pietersen, then a raw off-spinner, to follow him in 2001.

4 Stephen Fleming
Heralded as the world’s greatest captain when he joined Nottinghamshire in 2005, the sidelining of Jason Gallian was justified when he led the county to a first Championship crown since 1987 in his first season.

His leadership and a Test batting average of 40.06 helped New Zealand to punch above their weight with series wins against India, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe during his tenure.

In 35 first class matches for Notts, he maintained an average of 55.49. The only blight on his record was relegation in 2006, a situation he rectified before leaving the county at the end of the 2007 season.

5 Bruce Dooland
Born in Adelaide in 1923, Dooland moved to England in 1948 having missed out on selection for Australia who had favoured Colin McCool and Doug Ring. After a spell with East Lancashire, he joined Notts in 1953 and never took less than 136 wickets in a season.

A Commando who saw action in the Pacific, he scored 4492 runs and took 748 wickets in his five seasons in Nottinghamshire. Dooland had also shown early promise as a baseball player and represented Australia ahead of his three Test appearances.

He played in two Gentlemen v Players fixtures and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1955 and still holds the Nottinghamshire record for wickets in a season.

6 David Hussey
If he’s available, Notts will sign him. That’s been the David Hussey policy at Trent Bridge since the unassuming Australian arrived in 2004 and proceeded to amass 1315 Championship runs in his debut season.

He reached four figures in 2005, 2006 and 2007 by which time his hard hitting One Day exploits had caught the attention of the Australian selectors. He made his ODI debut against West Indies in July 2008, an occasion he marked with a run-a-ball 50, and earned a lucrative contract with Kolkata Knight Riders in the Inaugural Indian Premier League.

The highlight of his stint with Nottinghamshire this season, covering for his compatriot Adam Voges, was a remarkable 120 off just 61 balls in the rain-hit NatWest Pro40 opener against Somerset.

7 Chris Cairns
Another Kiwi allrounder of World Class repute, Cairns first joined Nottinghamshire as an 18 year old in 1988 and returned as often as he could, featuring for the Outlaws in the 2008 Twenty20 Cup.

Cairns appeared in ten different seasons at Trent Bridge, his greatest contribution coming in 1995 when he scored 1171 first class runs and took 52 wickets, earning the cricket society award for the leading allrounder in English cricket.

8 Franklyn Stephenson
Stephenson took ten wickets and scored hundreds in both innings of Nottinghamshire’s Championship match against Yorkshire in 1988, becoming the sixth and last player to achieve the feat. His contribution wasn’t enough to win the match though, Yorkshire triumphant by 127 runs. Throughout that season, his form was sublime and he became the second player to record an allrounder’s double, taking 125 wickets and scoring 1018 runs.

Widely regarded as the best West Indian never to play Test Match cricket, his allegiance to the Rebel Eleven that toured apartheid stricken South Africa led to an international ban. An early adopter of the ‘slower ball,’ Stephenson would signal to Notts wicket keeper Bruce French ahead of each trademark delivery.

9 Stuart MacGill
Whilst few will argue with Shane Warne’s status as the best spin bowler of all time, his dominance can’t have frustrated anyone more than Stuart MacGill. With 208 wickets in 44 Tests, MacGill certainly fulfilled his own potential but would never find a place when Australia elected to use a single spinner.

A wine drinking intellectual, MacGill was a man of proud principle and refused to tour Zimbabwe in 2004 on moral grounds, adding to his habit of making headlines for being out rather than in the Australian team.

In 2002, he took 37 first class wickets at an average of 23.25 for Nottinghamshire, with match figures of 14-165 against Middlesex at Trent Bridge.

10 Gamini Goonesena
The first Asian captain of Cambridge University for whom he scored 211 against Oxford in 1957, Goonesena played 94 first class matches for Notts, taking 299 wickets and scoring 2464 runs.

He scored 107 not out against Northamptonshire at Trent Bridge in 1955, his highest score for the county.

Nottinghamshire’s Overseas Players (year of first appearance):
1952   Gamini Goonesena
1953   Bruce Dooland
1954   Alan Walker
1959   Keith Miller
1966   Deryck Murray
1968   Garry Sobers
1973   Dilap Doshi
1975   Clive Rice
1976   Kenny Watson
1978   Richard Hadlee
1988   Franklyn Stephenson
1988   Chris Cairns
1994   Jimmy Adams
1997   Nathan Astle
1998   Paul Strang
1999   Vasbert Drakes
2000   Paul Reiffel
2001   Greg Blewett
2002   Lance Kluesner
2002   Stuart MacGill
2002   Nico Boje
2003   Daniel Vettori
2003   Steve Elworthy
2004   David Hussey
2005   Stephen Fleming
2005   Younis Khan
2007   Andre Adams
2008   Adam Voges
2008   Ashwell Prince