Stevie to retire

[HAL]

[Blanch]

There's no confusion surrounding Steve Waugh's status as one of our greatest cricketers and captains.

A Champion in every sense of the word.

btw, don't underestimate punter. He will step up without doubt.

[Newelly]

Someone has rewired HAL's personality component. It got messed when sub-contractors of sub-contractors were brought onto to do the original job.

All we are say-in is give waugh a chance.

[HAL]

How are you?

[Donny]

The tributes start

Wisden Cricinfo staff


Not long after Steve Waugh announced his plans to retire at the end of Australia's Test series against India, the first of many tributes came flooding in, with Sachin Tendulkar leading the way.

"I think he set great examples in the way cricket should be played," Tendulkar said. "He was completely at a different level as far as mental toughness is concerned. He's someone I've really admired, he's shown over the years that he's very gutsy and when the time demands it, he's there to deliver."

John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, also joined in, pointing out how the opposition always had total respect for him. "He's been a wonderful captain, a wonderful batsman, a gritty, determined competitor."

Ricky Ponting, who took over from Waugh as the one-day international captain, and is now expected to lead the Test side too, said he wanted to enjoy the Indian Test series, which he sees as a celebration of Waugh's success. He said: "What is important to me is that we all enjoy being a part of his farewell series, it's sure to be something special."

Adam Gilchrist also paid his respects, citing the pride and passion Waugh instilled in the team: "I'm not saying players before him didn't play with pride and value it, but he's the main driver behind that passion and the aura of the baggy green."

John Buchanan, Australia's coach, insisted Waugh would go down in history as one of the greats, both on and off the pitch. "He's left a significant imprint not only on Australian cricket, I guess world cricket and even Australian society," Buchanan decreed. "He is going to be, I think, revered as one of the great leaders of Australian cricket and Australian sport."

[Donny]

Steve's facts and figures


STEVE WAUGH
Born: 2 June 1965
Tests: 164
One-dayers: 325

Test debut: v India, MCG, Dec 1985
One-day debut: v New Zealand, MCG, Jan 1986
Test runs: 10,660
Test batting average: 51.25
Test wickets: 91
Test bowling average: 36.95

One-day international runs: 7569
ODI batting average: 32.90
ODI wickets: 195
ODI bowling average: 34.67

Highest Test score: 200 (v West Indies, Sabina Park, April 1995)
Highest ODI score: 120 (v South Africa, Edgbaston, June 1999)
Best Test bowling: 5-28 (v South Africa, Newlands, March 1994)
Best ODI bowling: 4-33 (v Sri Lanka, SCG, Jan 1988)

Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1989
Australian ODI captain Dec 1997-Feb 2002
Australian Test captain Feb 1999-
Wisden Australian Cricketer of the Year 2000-01
Allan Border Medal winner 2001

[Donny]

I want Test captaincy: Ponting
November 26, 2003

RICKY Ponting said today he wanted to succeed Steve Waugh as Australia's Test cricket captain.

Ponting said he understood he would be the centre of a summer of speculation after Waugh's decision to retire at the end of the Test series against India starting next week.

Ponting assumed the one-day captaincy from Waugh early last year and led Australia to a World Cup triumph, and is currently Waugh's vice-captain in the Test arena.

The Tasmanian is considered by Waugh and other teammates, past players and pundits as a certainty to assume the Test leadership from Waugh.

"I understand that there will be speculation over the summer about the captaincy, that's fair enough," Ponting said today.

"But that is an issue for the selectors and (Cricket Australia) directors further down the track.

"I have made no secrets that I'd like to do the job, but that's not an issue for today, it's about Stephen Waugh and what a great player and leader he's been for our country."

Ponting said he was keen to enjoy the Indian Test series, which now shapes as a long farewell tour for Waugh.

"Today is about celebrating Stephen's success," he said.

"What is important to me is that we all enjoy being a part of his farewell series, it's sure to be something special."

[Donny]

Way he did it no surprise: Gilly
November 26, 2003

IT isn't surprising Steve Waugh has retired on his own terms, Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist said today.

The Australian Test captain told a press conference at the SCG today he has decided the Sydney Test with India in January before his home crowd is the right time and place to end his international career.

Gilchrist said it is typical of Waugh that he did not meet public and media expectations that he would seek to play on until after the tour to India next October to achieve the goal of a series win there.

"It doesn't surprise me that he's doing it his way," Gilchrist told ABC radio in Melbourne.

"And what I love about him, and it's testament to his character and his grit and determination, that he got that one line in there saying 'form and fitness probably indicates that I probably should continue'."

Gilchrist said it was an emotional day but he looks forward to the great farewell Waugh can expect from crowds at the four homes Tests against India in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

"I rang my wife straight away at the announcement and she was in tears because she knows him well, and (Waugh's wife) Lynette," he said.

"I think she'd be looking at it from a family perspective.

"It's a wonderful moment and I cannot wait for the next five weeks now, and particularly that last day in Sydney."

Gilchrist, who is in line to be Test vice-captain under Ricky Ponting, said Waugh had been instrumental in ensuring pride in the Australian baggy green cap.

"I'm not saying players before him didn't play with pride and value it but he's the main driver behind that passion and the aura of the baggy green," he said.

He said dropping opening batsman Michael Slater from the Test side on the 2001 Ashes tour as a tour selector would have been one of the toughest decisions Waugh had made.

"It would be interesting to ask Stephen but I think would be one of the toughest moments of his career, that Michael Slater scenario," he said. AAP adm/gfr/nht

[Donny]

Healy salutes tenacity, loyalty
November 26, 2003

TENACITY will be the everlasting memory of Steve Waugh as a cricketer, former team-mate Ian Healy said today.

Healy said he was surprised at Waugh announcing today he would retire from international cricket at the end of the four-Test series with India starting next week.

"It did catch me by surprise," he Healy.

"He had been leading us all to believe that he was going to go to India (next year) and normally he has the tenacity to follow those predictions out.

"While I said it was surprising ... I certainly accept it and support the decision."

Asked what aspect he would remember most about Waugh, Healy said: "Tenacity.

"He is a guy who thrives when the battle is at its hardest, and tremendously loyal," said Healy.

"He was at the crease for the right reasons and loved it when the action was at its hottest."

Healy, president of the Australian Cricketers' Association, also praised Waugh's role in helping establish the players' union.

"He was one of five or six senior players that put their reputations on the line to stand up to the Australian Cricket Board in 1997," said Healy.

"We all had things written about us and our wages published and he was one of them.

"All those senior players at the time played a very big role in just improving slightly the conditions for our first-class cricketers."

[Donny]

Mark Waugh 'as suprised as any'
November 26, 2003

IT was a measure of how close to his chest Steve Waugh played his retirement card that even twin brother Mark admitted to being "out of the loop".

Mark Waugh can feel somewhat privileged to being given a couple of hours advance notice that the Australian Test captain would retire at the end of this summer's series against India.

"I knew about eight o'clock this morning when Stephen rang me, when I was in bed actually," Mark Waugh told radio 3AW.

"He said `I'm retiring from cricket and no-one else knows yet apart from Lynette'.

"I was fairly certain he would go to India and retire after that series.

"It was a bit of a surprise, he hadn't talked to me about it.

"I know we're twins and we played a lot of cricket together but Stephen really didn't let much on about when he was going to retire and in what we he wanted to do it.

"I was like most people, just guessing when he'd finish.

"His form obviously warranted selection in the Test team so it was just a matter of playing until he stopped enjoying it, and also his family came into it."

Waugh's retirement had long been subject to speculation, and it appeared last summer that it may not have been voluntary, only for a stirring, defiant century against England at the SCG cemented his place in the team.

"That innings in Sydney was crucial, it really turned around his career," Mark Waugh said.

"Before that Test he was on the way out, but that innings against England gave him a lifeline and since then he's batted extremely well in all the Test matches."

Mark Waugh made his Test debut at the expense of Steve, who had been dropped before later fighting back to resurrect a momentous career.

It was that fighting spirit that endeared Waugh to Australian sports fans, and his twin felt that image would serve him well in a post-cricket career.

"I don't think Stephen needs too much advice from his younger brother," Mark Waugh said.

"He's pretty well connected, he's got a great image and has got some good people looking after him in management.

"I'm sure he'll get involved in corporate companies, he's got his charities."

[Donny]

Mark Waugh 'as suprised as any'
November 26, 2003

IT was a measure of how close to his chest Steve Waugh played his retirement card that even twin brother Mark admitted to being "out of the loop".

Mark Waugh can feel somewhat privileged to being given a couple of hours advance notice that the Australian Test captain would retire at the end of this summer's series against India.

"I knew about eight o'clock this morning when Stephen rang me, when I was in bed actually," Mark Waugh told radio 3AW.

"He said `I'm retiring from cricket and no-one else knows yet apart from Lynette'.

"I was fairly certain he would go to India and retire after that series.

"It was a bit of a surprise, he hadn't talked to me about it.

"I know we're twins and we played a lot of cricket together but Stephen really didn't let much on about when he was going to retire and in what we he wanted to do it.

"I was like most people, just guessing when he'd finish.

"His form obviously warranted selection in the Test team so it was just a matter of playing until he stopped enjoying it, and also his family came into it."

Waugh's retirement had long been subject to speculation, and it appeared last summer that it may not have been voluntary, only for a stirring, defiant century against England at the SCG cemented his place in the team.

"That innings in Sydney was crucial, it really turned around his career," Mark Waugh said.

"Before that Test he was on the way out, but that innings against England gave him a lifeline and since then he's batted extremely well in all the Test matches."

Mark Waugh made his Test debut at the expense of Steve, who had been dropped before later fighting back to resurrect a momentous career.

It was that fighting spirit that endeared Waugh to Australian sports fans, and his twin felt that image would serve him well in a post-cricket career.

"I don't think Stephen needs too much advice from his younger brother," Mark Waugh said.

"He's pretty well connected, he's got a great image and has got some good people looking after him in management.

"I'm sure he'll get involved in corporate companies, he's got his charities."

[Donny]

The iciest of icemen


November 26, 2003



As Steve Waugh prepares to call it a day, Freddie Auld looks back on a remarkable career full of highs, and not many lows, and picks out his ten best moments.

1 v England, Kolkata, 1987 World Cup final
In the first of his four World Cups, Waugh showed the first signs of his ice-cold nerve when he bowled the penultimate over of the match with England requiring 19 runs to win. Waugh only gave away two, and dismissed Philip DeFtreitas as well, as Australia lifted the trophy.

2 v England, Headingley, 1989
The wait was finally over. After 27 attempts and two scores in the nineties came the first of many Test centuries, and number one of ten against England. In the first of six Tests in the 1989 Ashes, Waugh pummelled 177 not out and put on a hundred partnership with Dean Jones as Australia batted England out of the match. Australia went on to win by 210 runs.

3 v England, Lord's, 1989
Just to let everyone know he had arrived on the scene, Waugh scored another big, unbeaten century the very next match, and at Lord's too. Coming in after a solid start from the top order, Waugh went on to make 152 not out, and added 130 with Geoff Lawson to give Australia an unbeatable advantage. Just to really rub it in, he hit the winning runs in their six-wicket victory on their way to an 4-0 Ashes win, something which few people expected, and England didn't get him out until the third Test.


4 v South Africa, Adelaide, 1993-94
Just as he had established a healthy appetite for English bowling, he welcomed the South Africans in a similar style. In his first Test against them, coming back from injury, with Australia 1-0 down in the series, he masterminded a comfortable victory with 164 in the first innings, and then took 4 for 26 as South Africa went down by 191 runs. That was also the game in which Allan Border became the first man to exceed 11,000 Test runs, Ian Healy made his 200th dismissal and Shane Warne took his 100th wicket, but Waugh still picked up the Man of the Match award.

5 v West Indies, Kingston, 1994-95
Exceptional even by Waugh's standards. The four-Test series against West Indies was delicately poised at 1-1, so all to play for in the decider - and Waugh played it just right. After West Indies had posted a respectable 265, Waugh and his brother, Mark, put on a dazzling 231 together. Mark eventually fell for 126, but Steve made it to his first and, as yet, only double-hundred. Australia racked up 531, and West Indies, who had not lost a series for 15 years, succumbed to a humbling innings and 53-run drubbing, a result which changed the world order forever.

6 v South Africa, Johannesburg, 1996-97
Another big win, another hundred, and another big partnership. After the bowlers had let South Africa off the hook on 165 for 6 to reach 302, Waugh wasn't in such generous mood, and this time with Greg Blewett, batted throughout the third day and ground the South African attack with a dogged 160 and a monster stand of 385. Add to that the important wicket of Hansie Cronje in the second innings, and it was a good few days work as Australia ran out winners by an innings and 196 runs.

7 v England, Old Trafford, 1997
Yes, back to England, who again found themselves on the wrong end of Waugh's wand, this time in the 1997 Ashes. England at this point were 1-0 up in the series, but surely it couldn't last long – and thanks to two epic hundreds from Waugh, it didn't. In a low-scoring match, he scrapped out 108 in the first innings, just under half of the team total, and then put the match beyond England with an equally dogged 116. England lost by 268 runs and went on to lose the series 3-2.

8 v South Africa, World Cup, 1999
This was the match before the famous one, but if it wasn't for Waugh, then that thrilling semi-final may never have happened. In their previous tussle in the Super Sixes, South Africa again appeared to have everything under control with Australia struggling on 174 for 7 in chase of 272, but you guessed it, the captain game good. He calculated a perfectly-paced knock of 120 off 110 balls, and was infamously dropped by Herschelle Gibbs on 56. Whether or not Waugh muttered the line about dropping the World Cup is still unclear, but the importance of that century in Australia's winning campaign most certainly wasn't.

9 v England, The Oval, 2001
Only a fool would play with a dodgy leg, wouldn't they? After tearing a muscle in his leg at the Trent Bridge Test three weeks earlier, Waugh knew that the The Oval game would be his last in England - and nothing was going to stop him playing. Coming in on 292 for 2, Waugh could have been forgiven for playing it a bit easy, but not a bit of it. He could hardly run, so he just smacked boundaries - 21 fours and a six - instead. The only sniff they had of getting him out was when he hobbled for a single on 99, but he made it – and even managed a smile just afterwards.

10 v England, Sydney, 2002-03
His last game against the old enemy, and it wouldn't have been right if he hadn't gone out in style – and some style too. On the back of a poor series and with people calling for his head, he bailed the Aussies out one last time against the Poms, and as the balmy evening draw on, he edged closer and closer to his century. And so it happened that on 98 not out with one ball of the day to go, he punched Richard Dawson, the offspinner, through the covers to spark the biggest celebrations the SCG, his home ground, has witnessed for yonks. Even Waugh, the iciest of icemen, showed his appreciation of the historic moment, one which gleams brightly in his treasure chest.

[Donny]

The man who changed the game

Simon Barnes

To mark Steve Waugh's impending retirement we have pleasure in reproducing this essay, by Simon Barnes of The Times, which appears in the 2003 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack:

Never has a cricketer had so appropriate a surname. But let us understand that aright. Steve Waugh's cricketing warfare has never been a matter of hatred, jingoism and senseless aggression, any more than a matter of chivalry, romance and the search for personal glory.

No. Waugh's wars have been about the most efficient possible means of despatching the enemy. They are about a clear understanding of the opposition's strengths and weaknesses, and an equally uncluttered understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of his own side. Sometimes the results are spectacular, but that is by the way. Spectacle is a by-product of a hard head, clear vision, an analytical mind and an impersonal lust for victory.

Waugh wants to defeat you personally – but nothing personal, if you see what I mean. He has that air possessed by very few, even at the highest level of sport: that sense of vocation, that urge to beat not the opposition but the limitations of your self, your game, your world. There was something of that unearthly quality in Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian racing driver. Ellen MacArthur, the British sailor, has it too.

Waugh has the gift of reducing complex matters to simple ones: he sees without prejudice how best to exploit the opposition's weakness, how best to deploy his own strengths. The approach, cold-blooded, scientific, is that of a general, rather than a character in Sir Thomas Malory. Waugh has conducted his cricketing campaigns in a mood of dispassionate ferocity. He famously remarked that sledging was "mental disintegration"; but that is not so much the aim of Waugh's sledging as of Waugh's cricket. The batting, bowling and fielding of his teams have all had the aim of causing mental disintegration: a moment of uncertainty that leads to self-doubt that leads to defeat. Waugh always wants defeat to be personal and complete, the better to prey on the opposition mind. And in the process, he has transformed Test cricket. Over the past four years, his Australians played in a manner that was once unthinkable.

A captain is usually assessed on the way he operates his bowlers and sets his field, for it is supposed to be the fielding captain who controls the tempo of a match. Waugh is, of course, spectacularly good at all that. But it is the way he manages his batting line-up that is revolutionary.

In 1990, when there had been a long-running debate about intimidatory bowling, runs suddenly flowed in county cricket through a combination of flat pitches and a different type of ball. Simon Hughes, still operating as a bowler, asked the plaintive question: "What about intimidatory batting?" Under Waugh, Australia's batting has become the most intimidating aspect of modern cricket. The Australian batsmen seek to frighten opponents every bit as much as the fast-bowling quartet of the 1980s West Indians. They all act the same way, and they're all coming to get you.

Waugh's Australia bat with Waugh's dispassionate ferocity. They bat as a team, with personal glory very much a secondary matter. And above all, they bat fast. In 2001, Australia scored at 3.77 runs an over: breathtakingly fast by traditional standards. In 2002, Australia scored their Test runs at a rate of 3.99 an over. Only once in history has a team scored faster through a whole year – in 1910, Australia scored their runs at 4.47 every six balls, and there were far fewer Tests then. By comparison, England's run-rate in 2002 was 3.37 – and that was England's fastest rate in almost a century. Other nations are following the Australian lead, but they're not as good at it yet.

South Africa, once dour, now bat at a significantly faster tempo: the first thing they did in 2003 was to score 445 in a day against Pakistan. The sea-change in Michael Vaughan of England over the past year was in tempo. Speed is not an accident. It is a tactic. It can't be done without very good players, but it is not the direct result of having good players. It is the result of astute, logical, cold-blooded thought on the subject of how best to win a cricket match.

We traditionally think of fast scoring as something dashing and devil-may- care: Jessop, Milburn, Botham. It was merry and jaunty and beery, the way you batted if you were a bit of a lad. Fast scoring was not altogether serious – it came in the drive-for-show category. Waugh's Australians have put it into the putt-for-dough department. For them, fast scoring is not a bonnets-over-the-windmill slogfest: it is deadly serious. It is done first to undermine the opposing bowlers, and with them the rest of the fielding side. And then it gives Australia extra time in the quest for 20 wickets: a free session for your bowlers every innings. No wonder it took them only 11 playing days to win each of the last two Ashes series.

Most non-Australian cricket followers would admit when pressed that they can't always tell one Australian batsman from another. They all wear green helmets with the Australian coat of arms above the grille, they are all good, they are all vindictively aggressive towards anything loose, they are all hugely confident. They bat as a unit and there's always another one waiting to destroy you. A bit like the film Zulu.

The wicketkeeper scores even faster than the top six and the tail bat seriously, always an aspect of a consistently victorious side. And just as the West Indian bowling ground the opposition down, softened them up and destroyed their confidence, so the Australian batting does the same thing.

The influence of one-day cricket is obvious, but it is not that the Australians bat in Test matches as if they were in a one-dayer. It is rather that the thought processes of one-day cricket – the need to capitalise on every error of the opposition, the presumption that you look to make runs off every ball – have been adapted to the Test context.

Hit-and-giggle? Far from it. There is no suggestion that a wicket is any less valuable to an Australian than it was before: Sydney 2003 was the first time since England's previous visit four years earlier that they had been bowled out twice in a home Test. But wickets are seen more as team than as individual possessions. Every batting tactic, including that of speed, must be adapted to the conditions. In knuckling-down conditions, Australian batsmen will knucke down. But send them a bad ball at any time in any context and hear it thwack into the boundary board: first over of the day, last over of the day, just after a wicket, just before tea, 50 for 3 or 200 for 0 – bam. And don't even think about a nightwatchman. When Andy Bichel was moved up to No. 3 at Sydney in January 2003, nightwatchman was the word that sprang to some commentators' lips, but what he was actually doing was the opposite – softening the new ball.

It is not so much a tactic as an emphasis: when in doubt, attack. Not for fun – as a thought-out ploy. As a team policy. Speed is not self-indulgence but duty. The idea is to win every session of every Test match, and mostly that is what Australia have been doing. If things go amiss, there is always the captain to come in later in the order. The only disappointment in Waugh's later career is that there have been so few occasions when he has been required to do his one-man rescue act. The tactic of speed has been enthralling, but Waugh did not do it to enthral. He did it to enslave. There was an awful lot of guff talked about "brighter cricket" in the 1960s: if that was brighter cricket, what would audiences of 40 years back have made of the Australian speed machine? Waugh doesn't employ the tactic to make cricket brighter. But – and it is an aspect of his greatness – he didn't allow his prejudice against mere entertainment to muddle his thinking. In its intention, the Australian strokemaking is as flamboyant as an atom bomb.

The definitive treatise on warfare as a science of destruction rather than a chivalric art was written by Karl von Clausewitz in Napoleonic times. It is called On War. If a similarly hard-nosed book were to be written on cricket, the same title could be used. With a small adjustment to the spelling.

[couragous cloke]

Has been my hero, my 2nd favourite player (behind the prince ) Didnt have the best style but was ever so effective.. What a man! what a player. Steve Waugh will go down as the best eva Australian captain!

thanx for the memories steve, ill never forget that ton in Sydney

[Miss_Lisey_Molloy]