It might seem casual, but the ritual has a technical significance. “This is your bread-and-butter,” Ilott says, gesturing across the field where the Sussex batsmen are struggling against a moving ball, the Essex fielders against a chill wind. (Ilott himself had a thigh strain and was on temporary 12th man duty.) “Nas is safe in the England side for some time now. One moment, a 22,000 crowd and a nation’s attention; the next a sprinkling of deck chairs and the rustling of sandwich wrappers. “When he was getting to his double hundred, the hairs on my neck were standing on end,” Ilott said “It was almost as if my brother had done it.

We had a game to win at The Oval, yet we were just as interested in how he was doing.” They still gave him some stick, mind, reminding Hussain that Paul Grayson, his replacement as Essex number three, had scored the first century by an Essex number three this season.If the step up from county to Test cricket can seem monumental, as Ilott well knows, the step down can be equally daunting. After weathering one or two early tantrums, not usually initiated by the mild-mannered Ilott, the pair have developed a firm friendship. He also saved his Man of the Match champagne for Graham Gooch’s barbecue last Tuesday. “That was a nice touch, wasn’t it?” said Mark Ilott.Ilott and Hussain made their county debuts on the same day, back in 1988.

Up the motorway, Hussain’s extravagant salute was aimed as much at his county colleagues, who returned the favour in a chaotic telephone call to the England dressing-room later that day.Not a man given to great shows of affection, Hussain thanked his team for their support in a touching and informal little speech at The Grand in Brighton the night before the match against Sussex, his first as the nation’s darling. That had not stopped the whole Essex team erupting in pleasure at the success of their mate.
They were batting at The Oval at the time, where the television can be watched with ease, even by the next man in. As the third of his fours off an over from Shane Warne sped to the cover boundary to bring up his 200, spectators at The Oval were disturbed by raucous celebrations from the open window of the visiting players’ balcony. A “nice knock, Nas,” from a passing Sussex player brought only mumbled thanks. Only this month, Mike Atherton had detailed just how slowly the adrenalin pumps on, well, dank days at Hove and Hussain, a sensitive man, was deeply conscious that he had scored almost as many runs in one innings for England as he had for Essex the whole of the season: 226 to 207, to be precise.