Sport - Cricket

Let's pay tribute to Steve Waugh

By Ted Corbett

SYDNEY Jan. 1. Let us pay tribute to Steve Waugh, on the eve of the fifth Test between Australia and England, before he is hidden in perpetual darkness by selectors who are prepared to drop hints about his future every day but who want him to step aside and make their lives easier.

They don't want to be the assassins of a hero; they want him to drink from the poisoned chalice without any prompting. They misjudge their man. Waugh is one of the special guys and Australia owes him more than a farewell nod.

The country should acknowledge what he has done. Here is one example. When the 1989 squad left for England under Allan Border it was described as `the worst collection of players to leave these shores.'

The players returned to a ticker-tape parade through Sydney after winning 4-0; if someone had not coined the sobriquet The Invincibles for Bradman's 1948 team, someone else would have applied it to Australia '89.

The man responsible for this transformation was Waugh. It was the third Test before England succeeded in dismissing him as, batting at No. 6, he ran up scores of 177 not out, 152 not out, 21

not out and 43. He made 92 in the fourth Test before his runs dried up.

Other cricketers played their part but it was Waugh, who had been a failure to that point, who began the process that brought Australia to the top of the world championship. He helped win two World Cups too, and his cutting remark to South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs in the semifinal of the 1999 Cup turned the game.

"Mate, you've just dropped the World Cup,'' said Waugh when Gibbs celebrated a catch off Waugh before he had the ball safely in his hands.

When today's game begins on his home ground Waugh needs 69 to be the third Test batsman to hit 10,000 runs: Border leads with 11,174 and Sunil Gavaskar has 10,122. As he shakes hands with Nasser Hussain at the toss on Thursday he will equal the world record, held by Border, for most Test appearances.

His debut came in 1985 against India in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. It was 27 Tests before he scored his first hundred, at Headingley in 1989. He now has 28. Only Gavaskar with 34, Sachin

Tendulkar 31 and Don Bradman with 29, have more.

His record as captain is magnificent. Clive Lloyd won three more matches than Waugh's 33 but

Lloyd captained 74 Tests for West Indies compared with Waugh's 44. If the statistics are changed to show the highest percentage of wins compared with matches only Warwick Armstrong, the successful Ashes captain in the 1920-21 whitewash, has a better record.

In fact, Waugh's contribution to Australian cricket has little to do with numbers. His spirit, that stern face which covers a warm heart - as witnessed by his work among the poor of India - that rugged non-shall-pass, simple batting technique, his brisk bowling, his electric fielding: all these qualities epitomise Australian cricket.

Glenn McGrath will miss the Test with a side strain but Australia will still field three pacemen - Jason Gillespie, recovered from another strain, Andy Bichel and Brett Lee - and rely on Stuart MacGill's spin which means the left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg will drop out.

It will be the first time for more than six years and 77 Tests that Australia has gone into a Test without McGrath or Shane Warne. Since that day, at Delhi in October 1996, when India triumphed by seven wickets, Australia has won 50 of 77 Tests. How it fares without two of the greatest strike bowlers will be fascinating.

Waugh's fate may hinge on the outcome which is a pity. His work for Australia has been so great that Waugh deserves to rest in peace. England knows that if it loses it will be the first side to go

Down Under 5-0 in 80 years; win and it may be able to leave Australia holding its heads at least shoulder high instead of looking at its feet as it passes through Immigration.

The teams: Australia: Steve Waugh (captain), Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Martin Love, Adam Gilchrist, Stuart MacGill, Andy Bichel, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie.

England (from): Nasser Hussain (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher, Robert Key, John Crawley, Alec Stewart, Richard Dawson, Alex Tudor, Steve Harmison, Andrew Caddick, Matthew Hoggard.

Umpires: Dave Orchard (South Africa) and Russell Tiffin (Zimbabwe). TV umpire: Darrell Hair. Match referee: Wasim Raja (Pakistan).

The `whitewash' list

The present Australian team is bidding to become only the ninth team in Test cricket history to complete a `whitewash' of a five-match series when the fifth Ashes Test against England starts on Thursday.

The list (read under series winning team, losing team, home team): 1920-21 Australia, England, Australia; 1931-32 Australia, South Africa, Australia; 1959 England, India, England; 1961-62 West Indies, India, West Indies; 1984 West Indies, England, England; 1985-86 West Indies, England, West Indies; 1998-99 South Africa, West Indies, South Africa; 2000-01 Australia, West Indies, Australia.

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