Steve Waugh emerges a worthy leader

By G. Viswanath

SYDNEY, FEB. 5. There comes a time in a sportsman's life when the adrenalin flows and gives the fighter a tremendous sense of satisfaction on accomplishing a specific task. It has been a real hard work for two summers for Steve Waugh who took over as Australia's captain from Mark Taylor.

The 34-year old star from New South Wales stands tall as a leader today and is seen by the Australians as a man worthy of holding a high position, which the country's Prime Minister, Mr. John Howard likened as the second highest in Australia.

Since the Ashes series of 1998-99, for which Mark Taylor was the captain, Steve Waugh has been at the helm of the Australian team that won the Carlton & United Series (featuring Australia, England and Sri Lanka), retained the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy, shared the honours in the one-day Internationals series in the West Indies, won the World Cup in England, the Test and home series against Zimbabwe, won the Test series against Pakistan and India and the just concluded Carlton & United Series.

Steve Waugh's victories, collection of cups and trophies must be the envy of other captains. A couple of them - England's Nasser Hussain and Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya are carrying the burden for the first time. South Africa's Hansie Cronje was on trial against England in the home series and though he won the Test series, the selectors are reviewing his ability as a batsman.

Pakistan's Wasim Akram and India's Sachin Tendulkar do not appear to be in the good books of the Establishment and Brian Lara is not able to fathom what's wrong with Caribbean cricket. New Zealand's Stephen Fleming is finally relishing the success of having routed the West Indies in the Test series and one-dayers. In this mixed and gloomy scenario, only Steve Waugh has reason to smile.

The phenomenal Aussie takes his team to New Zealand and the tour will complete Australia's international commitments for the season. The Australians see the Inter-Tasman rivalry as next only to the Ashes.

The Australians do not have a great record in New Zealand. ``We have been waiting for long for this tour. There are ten days left before we go there. We will freshen up in time for that series. We have played some great cricket in the last twelve months and there is no reason why we should not maintain the form there,'' he said after winning the C & U Series.

Waugh attributed the clean sweep against Pakistan and India to working with the new coach John Buchanan, shaping and running the team in his own way and working out tactics through valuable inputs from think groups. What has upset the Australian team is the `Player of the Test series' award going to Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar and the Carlton & United series player award to Pakistan's Abdur Razzaq.

Glenn McGrath, winner of the Allan Border Medal, expressed displeasure after Australia beat India in three day's at Sydney in the first week of January. Steve Waugh was tactful when he said ``we played to win the series and cups, not bikes. Good luck to him (Razzaq). Anyway one cannot see the bikes 15 miles away. May be we will give it a go next summer.''

Steve Waugh made his Test debut 15 years ago when Australian cricket's stock was low. The turning point was the 1987 World Cup win when Allan Border's team beat Mike Gatting's England. Steve was a part of that team and since then has seen the revival of Australian cricket.

He scored his first century in his 27th Test match, but failures soon came to haunt him. He made it big in the West Indies in 1994-95 and was the key to Australia regaining the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy by scoring 429 runs for an average of 107.25.

He was more consistent in limited over matches. He bowled a lot, scored runs, though not many hundreds (the 120 he made against South Africa at last year's World Cup was only his second) and fielded well.

Once the selectors decided to drop Taylor for the one-day Internationals, the captaincy was always going to be his, though there were whispers of Shane Warne being considered for the job. But the selectors adhered to custom and fourteen months on, Waugh has proved his mettle.

Waugh is not far away from leaving the hard grind. Allan Border quit at 38 and Mark Taylor was perhaps compelled to retire at 34. The Australian selectors have Ricky Ponting in mind as a future captain but that depends on Shane Warne's shoulder trouble.

But before all this can happen, Waugh is on the threshold of creating history. He can beat countryman Warwick Armstrong's record of eight successive Test wins by winning the first two Tests against the Kiwis.

MUTUAL ADMIRATION: Steve Waugh (left) and fast bowler Glenn McGrath exchange pleasantries after Australia won the Carlton & Series, beating Pakistan in the second final, at Sydney on Friday. Steve Waugh has led his team to stunning success through the summer while McGrath has delivered whenever his team and captain have looked up to him. - Photo: N. Sridharan

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