Bradford groundsman Nasa Hussain: “Why would the King be writing to me?”

Nasa Hussain is looking back at a cricketing life formed playing in the backstreets of Bradford, leading to a British Empire Medal medal in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours List via his groundsman duties at Bradford Park Avenue and at Bradford’s ECB-funded indoor cricket dome. He is now also part of the ground staff at Headingley.

We’re speaking on a midweek afternoon when the schools have re-opened after the summer break, but the indoor cricket dome is a hive of activity.

“The domes have been a huge success. The ECB came to Park Avenue, a ground that's in the centre of the community, in the middle of Bradford, a hotbed of cricket, with the view that [they develop the] Park Avenue project and the land that we had at the side of the cricket ground which was the old vacant football ground.”

It was then on an early December morning in 2023 when the ECB chair Richard Thompson and the former England and Yorkshire bowler Darren Gough along with Hussain and members of the Bradford Community were on hand to open the dome, which has quickly become a huge success. The likes of Adil Rashid and Shan Masood have turned up to use the facility alongside parents and children from across Bradford and beyond.

The National Tape Ball Competition took place at the Indoor Cricket Dome in Bradford in 2024 and saw 11 women’s teams and 13 men’s teams competing for the coveted cup. It was a huge celebration of the contribution ethnically diverse communities have made to cricket, bringing together the right mix of food, music and, of course, Tape Ball cricket

“Last year from January to December, we had over 52,000 people, and that's just on the booking system of lanes booked, averaging about four people per lane. So you know that's a massive success,” said Hussain.

“Predominantly 90-95 percent of it is cricket, but we also host an organisation called Sunnah Sports who receive the holiday activation fund. They hire the dome out and they'll do multiple different sports.”

It was while Hussain was carrying out his Park Avenue groundsman duties that he received a call from his daughter which would forever change his life.

“I got a phone call from home. It's my daughter saying to me, ‘Dad, there's a letter.’ And I'm like, ‘You've rang me to tell me there's a letter?’ I said, ‘Is it a fine or something? Is that why you rang me? Is your mum going to be upset about something I've done wrong?’ And she says to me, ‘No, Dad.’

“I said, ‘open it, and tell me what it is.’ She says, ‘I have opened it. It's...a letter from the King!’

“I said, ‘I haven't got time. Why would the King be writing to me?’”

Hussain rushed home to discover that the letter was in fact from the King, and he had been awarded a BEM for services to cricket. However, the shock was still evident.

“All you ever hear about is that David Beckham got this and that so and so got that. Nobody hears about Nasa who cuts grass at Bradford Park. So, yeah, it was an absolute wow factor.”

Among his other roles, Hussain is a board member of the Bradford Cricket League and its disciplinary chair. Through this role, he reunited with fellow groundsman Richard Robinson, current head groundsman at Yorkshire, who introduced Hussain to the art of grounds keeping, which put Hussain in the frame for his role at Headingley.

Proof of their work in tough conditions came on the first day of the first England v Pakistan Test match last month. Faced with sodden outfield, a wet pitch and square, Robinson guided Hussain and the rest of his team to get play on within an hour of the rain stopping, receiving plaudits from the match referee for getting the match back on as quickly as they did.

“It's more to do with the way Richard handles things as well. He's a very good man, he's got great man management skills, and is a good leader.”