Brisbane 2002: Could England Have Got Off To A Worse Start?

He called right but then he called it wrong... Richard Edwards on Nasser’s coin toss and the horrors of Brisbane 15 years ago...

- Richard Edwards

Simon Jones pauses before delivering his answer... “Nasser was an astute captain, tactically very good,” he says, before adding: “Well, 99 per cent of the time.”

Rewind, and it’s November 7, 2002 and Jones, along with his team-mates, is waiting for the England skipper to return to the dressing after perhaps the most important coin toss of his career.

In the stands, expectant Australians are baying for blood. After a typically dismal start to a tour Down Under, the massed ranks of the Barmy Army are simply hoping for the best.

The coin goes up and Hussain calls correctly. Steve Waugh, his opposite number, begins mentally preparing to take to the field for the first day of an Ashes series that sees his side start as significant favourites. Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick are already mentally strapping on the pads.

“We’ll have a bowl,” says the England captain. Cue stony silence in England’s already apprehensive dressing room.

“I’m really not too sure what happened,” Jones tells The Cricket Paper, almost 15 years on. “The Gabba is always a good wicket and if you win the toss then, generally, you have a hit first up. I’m not sure what Nasser was thinking. He had a bit of a brain fart.”

Safe to say that Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden couldn’t believe their luck, as they strode out in bright sunshine to take on an inexperienced English attack on a ground they hadn’t been beaten on for 13 years. When the stumps were drawn on day one, Australia were sitting pretty on 364 for 2, with Hayden on 186 not out.

Ricky Ponting, meanwhile, had his feet up in the dressing room, grinning broadly after scoring an equally dominant 123.

Jones, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen...