Stevie to retire

[Donny]

"Daddy, I don't want you to go away any more."

Steve Waugh reveals that a comment from his daughter across the breakfast table prompted his decision to retire

[Donny]

Hohns derides Tubby's claim
November 28, 2003 - Fox Sports

CHIEF cricket selector Trevor Hohns today labelled claims the national panel pushed Stephen Waugh into retirement as ridiculous.

Hohns strongly rejected suggestions made by former Test captain Mark Taylor the selectors struck a deal with Waugh guaranteeing his selection until the end of this summer's four-Test series against India.

The chairman of the four-man panel said he was genuinely surprised by Waugh's announcement and denied inferences of a tap on the shoulder.

"There has been some innuendo about that but that's a ridiculous thing to even contemplate," he said.

"It certainly was a bit of a surprise to me.

"It's more saddening than anything for myself because we are talking about someone who will go down as one of the all-time greats in Australian cricket."

Taylor, Waugh's predecessor as skipper, felt the 38-year-old's decision to retire after the fourth Test at the SCG was not completely his own.

"I get the feeling there has been a little guarantee given to him by the selectors that if you are going to announce your retirement in Sydney we can guarantee you a spot in the side until that time," Taylor had said.

While the selectors have forced the likes of Ian Healy and Mark Waugh to stand down from international cricket in the past, Hohns said there had been no talk about the timing of the captain's potential swansong.

Hohns did not feel the prolonged national debate over his Test place was an influence on the 164-Test veteran's decision.

"Steve himself has always said he doesn't expect any guarantees and we don't give anybody any guarantees about their place in the Australian cricket side. But what I can guarantee now is to do our utmost to make sure Steve goes out they way he wants to," he said, denying he was relieved a tough decision was out of the selectors' hands.

"I didn't think that hard decision was there yet. Look at his form, his form was outstanding."

Hohns would not speculate about Waugh's successor but lavished praised upon one-day skipper and captain-in-waiting Ricky Ponting's recent leadership.

He nominated current Test player Simon Katich, last-Test centurion Martin Love, in-form Victorian Brad Hodge and exciting youngster Michael Clarke as four players with serious credentials to take Waugh's place in the long term.

Hohns indicated Katich, who scored 52 and took 6-65 in the last Test against Zimbabwe, was strongly positioned for a lengthy Test stint thanks to his good batting form and improving wrist spinners.

The selectors are mindful of rejuvenating a Test side which has seven players in their 30s but they have not shut the door on injured Darren Lehmann, 33, who will comeback from a foot injury in the new year.

Hohns rated the left-hander an important and influential member of the team and believed he would have a role to play in the February tour of Sri Lanka.

[Donny]

Tut tut, Tubby.

You really need a bit more than "I get the feeling" to come out with that sort of statement.

[Donny]

Australian Test captains

Captain Tenure Tests W L D T

DW Gregory 1876-79 3 2 1 0 0
WL Murdoch 1880-90 16 5 7 4 0
TP Horan 1884-85 2 0 2 0 0
HH Massie 1884-85 1 1 0 0 0
JM Blackham 1884-95 8 3 3 2 0
HJH Scott 1886 3 0 3 0 0
PS McDonnell 1886-88 6 1 5 0 0
G Giffen 1894-95 4 2 2 0 0
GHS Trott 1896-98 8 5 3 0 0
J Darling 1899-05 21 7 4 10 0
H Trumble 1901-02 2 2 0 0 0
MA Noble 1903-09 15 8 5 2 0
C Hill 1910-12 10 5 5 0 0
SE Gregory 1912 6 2 1 3 0
WW Armstrong 1920-21 10 8 0 2 0
HL Collins 1921-26 11 5 2 4 0
W Bardsley 1926 2 0 0 2 0
J Ryder 1928-29 5 1 4 0 0
WM Woodfull 1930-34 25 14 7 4 0
VY Richardson 1935-36 5 4 0 1 0
DG Bradman 1936-48 24 15 3 6 0
WA Brown 1945-46 1 1 0 0 0
AL Hassett 1949-53 24 14 4 6 0
AR Morris 1951-55 2 0 2 0 0
IWG Johnson 1954-57 17 7 5 5 0
RR Lindwall 1956-57 1 0 0 1 0
ID Craig 1957-58 5 3 0 2 0
R Benaud 1958-64 28 12 4 11 1
RN Harvey 1961 1 1 0 0 0
RB Simpson 1963-78 39 12 12 15 0
BC Booth 1965-66 2 0 1 1 0
WM Lawry 1967-71 25 9 8 8 0
BN Jarman 1968 1 0 0 1 0
IM Chappell 1970-75 30 15 5 10 0
GS Chappell 1975-83 48 21 13 14 0
GN Yallop 1978-79 7 1 6 0 0
KJ Hughes 1978-85 28 4 13 11 0
AR Border 1984-94 93 32 22 38 1
MA Taylor 1994-99 50 26 13 11 0
SR Waugh 1998-date 53 40 8 5 0
AC Gilchrist 2000-01 2 1 1 0 0

[Donny]

A hard man with a soft touch

Christian Ryan - Cricinfo

When Steve Waugh wants something, he gets it. Accordingly there seems virtually no doubt that, though he has never scored so many runs in a series before, he will coolly rustle up the 515 he needs to beat Allan Border's world runs record. That landmark should stand, however, for only two or three summers at best. And Waugh, you fancy, might be a bit annoyed about that.

So it will come as no surprise – in fact, it is bordering on inevitable – that we will at some stage see Waugh, out of sheer perverse bloody-mindedness, chugging in off his long run and pilfering those nine wickets he needs to go where no man has gone before. Ten thousand runs, one hundred wickets: the unthinkable double. That landmark should stand for two or three centuries, at worst. And Waugh, you suspect, might be tinkled pink about that.

Getting what he wants is one of Waugh's many defining qualities. In the past 48 hours a thousand adjectives have been reeled off, most of them familiar: tough, gritty, determined, ruthless, passionate, patriotic, pugnacious. And yet Waugh has never been so simple to read.

He is a contradictory, confounding creature. He can seem humble, he can seem self-centred. He is a hard man with a soft touch, who sneers at opponents but dotes on leprosy sufferers. He can seem shy and quiet and modest one day, shrewd and witty and headline-chasing the next. At the after-match press conference, one of many arenas where Waugh is master, he does not so much answer questions as set agendas.

The contradictions were rooted firmly in place until the very last. A colleague this week was bewildered by the way Waugh, during his no-frills announcement of his retirement on Wednesday, seemed utterly without sadness or anger. That's because he reveals nothing, I explained.

Immediately a wave of contradictory images swamped the mind. A vulnerable Waugh, an emotional Waugh. There he is in Colombo, spitting blood and venom after ploughing into Jason Gillespie in the outfield. There he is at Port-of-Spain, with murderous eyes and a filthy tongue, going to war with Curtly Ambrose. And there he is in the gully, smirking to himself when Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath have the batsmen pinned down by the throat, cursing and frowning on one of the rare occasions when they don't. Emotionally emotionless, in a very Australian kind of way.

On the journey to England in 2001, Waugh and his men stopped off at the Gallipoli battlefield in search of inspiration. All the players tried on the big-brimmed, old-style slouch hats which the diggers used to wear. All of them looked faintly ridiculous. All except Waugh, that is, who looked so comfortable he might have been born in one.

There is something of Ned Kelly, of Simpson and his donkey, in Waugh. Icon is an abused word in Australian society. But with Waugh it fits. His fame transcends his sport in a way that was true of precious few Australian cricketers before him: Don Bradman, Keith Miller, Richie Benaud, Dennis Lillee, Warwick Armstrong maybe. People who couldn't care less about cricket care passionately about Steve Waugh.

Which makes the way he has been treated by Australia's selectors seem shabby and mean-spirited, as well as ill-advised. Trevor Hohns, Allan Border, David Boon and Andrew Hilditch are perhaps the only four people in the country for whom the number 38 (Waugh's age) is more resonant than 104 (his Test average during the past 11 months).

John Benaud, the always thoughtful former Test selector, made a particularly intriguing observation in an interview last year. "I think there's a theory at board level," said Benaud, "that the one-day team has to be a young, vibrant outfit, and I think that's a reasonable approach. The marketing people want to get a message across that cricket's a young man's game."

Benaud emphasised back then that commerce and razzmatazz were factors only in one-day selection, never Tests. In the 18 months since the policy would appear to have been expanded. Colin Miller, at 38, was bowling more tightly and ingeniously than ever when the selectors decreed him past his use-by date. Damien Fleming was 33 when he retired. The board, rather than endeavouring to change Fleming's mind, lined up a coaching job for him at the academy instead.

That manoeuvre backfired this week when the selectors, constrained by injuries, were forced to announce a severely undermanned attack for next week's first Test in Brisbane. If Fleming was still playing today, as he should be, he would have waltzed into the XI.

You could forgive the selectors for being keen to fast-track the elevation of Ricky Ponting, whose one-day teams have played with an all-smiling, fire-breathing intensity. Ponting, just as significantly, has declared he will not tolerate personal agro or abuse – which, given the current climate, is almost as prized as not tolerating defeat. When McGrath lost his cool with Ramnaresh Sarwan this year, and pictures of a finger-jabbing grumpy old man bounced across breakfast television screens, the public made plain its displeasure with the board. And the board made plainer still its displeasure with Waugh. This, conceivably, counted against him.

But you could forgive Waugh, too, if he is feeling a bit miffed today. The selectors departed from their normal mum's-the-word modus operandi last summer when they commented publicly on his place in the team, telling him there were no guarantees. Waugh wasn't pushed but he was given a fair old shove. To depart with dignity, his only option was to depart now.

It is too sad, too sour, to dwell on these behind-the-scenes machinations. Years from now it will all be forgotten, perhaps even by Waugh himself. Best to remember him for 18 amazing years, not 12 anxious months. But remember, too, that this was one occasion he wanted something and didn't get it.

Christian Ryan is a former managing editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly and a former Darwin correspondent of the Melbourne Age.

[Donny]

The Waugh that raged during crises

S Rajesh - Cricinfo

Perhaps numbers do never reveal the full story, but they tell a large part of it fairly well. Every Friday, The Numbers Game will take a look at statistics from the present and the past, busting myths and revealing hidden truths.

Waugh to the rescue

Sachin Tendulkar steals a march over him in terms of technical perfection and allround strokeplay, Brian Lara's genius is far more exhilarating to watch, but ask anyone to name a batsman most likely to bail his team out of trouble, and chances are the name will be Steve Waugh. As the table below shows, Waugh saved his best for times when his side was in trouble: of his 32 centuries, nine came in back-to-the-wall situations when Australia had lost early wickets. Significantly, Australia went on to win five out of those eight matches. (Two of those nine hundreds came in the same match, against England at Manchester in 1997.)

Nine instances when Waugh played saviour

Versus Venue Score Entered at Team innings Winner

West Indies Jamaica 1994-95 200 73 for 3 1st Australia
England Manchester, 1997 108 42 for 3 1st Australia
England Manchester, 1997 116 39 for 3 2nd Australia
Pakistan Rawalpindi, 1998-99 157 28 for 3 1st Australia
West Indies Jamaica, 1998-99 100 46 for 3 1st West Indies
West Indies Barbados, 1998-99 199 36 for 3 1st West Indies
India Adelaide, 1999-00 150 45 for 3 1st Australia
New Zealand Wellington, 1999-00 151* 51 for 4 1st Australia
England Sydney, 2002-03 102 56 for 3 1st England


Eight out of these nine were first-innings efforts, though. For all of Waugh's ability to turn it on at the crunch, his second-innings stats are surprisingly ordinary – just two hundreds and an average of less than 31.

Innings Runs Ave 100s 50s

Waugh in the 1st innings 162 8469 61.81 30 38
Waugh in the 2nd innings 91 2191 30.85 2 10


* * * * * *

Better than the Don
And here's one stat where Waugh outperforms even Don Bradman: in the 32 innings in which Waugh has scored a hundred, he averages more than 255, which is the highest among batsmen with at least 20 centuries. Bradman is in fourth place while Sachin Tendulkar just makes it to the top eight. Waugh's staggering average is, admittedly, a result of a disproportionately high number of not-outs: 15 out of his 32 centuries have been unbeaten ones. Disregard those, and his average comes down to a more earthy 135.


100s Runs in 100s Not-outs Ave Runs/innings
Waugh 32 4342 15 255.41 135.69
Hammond 22 3685 7 245.67 167.50
Miandad 23 3584 8 238.93 155.83
Bradman 29 5393 6 234.48 185.97
Sobers 26 3918 9 230.47 150.69
Border 27 3580 11 223.75 132.59
Boycott 22 2830 7 188.67 128.64
Tendulkar 31 4513 7 188.04 145.58


* * * * * *

The dead-rubber master

Waugh's incredible record as captain has much to do with the fact that he was handed a champion side by Mark Taylor, but Waugh has undoubtedly taken the team to an even higher level. He has instilled in them the hard-nosed and ruthless approach that characterises his own game. Nowhere is this new steel more apparent than in Australia's tendency to show no mercy even when their opponent has been well and truly beaten. During Taylor's days, Australia recorded some historic wins, but would tend to slip up once the main task at hand – winning the series – was completed. As the table below shows, under Waugh the Australians have significantly improved their record in dead rubbers: despite recent defeats against England and West Indies, their win-loss record in dead Tests is an impressive 11-3.

Overall as captain Tests Won Lost Win-loss ratio

Taylor 50 26 13
2:1
Waugh 53 40 8 5:1
In dead rubbers Tests Won Lost Win-loss ratio
Taylor 6 1 4 0.25:1
Waugh 14 11 3 3.67:1


* * * * * *

The motivator

A captain is recognised not only by the ability to lift his own game, but also by the ability to inspire his team-mates to excel. Since Waugh had a team which was largely unchanged from the players whom Taylor led, it becomes possible to compare how the players performed under those two captains. Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting have done considerably better under Waugh, but it's interesting to note that Mark Waugh was at his best when playing under Taylor.

Among the bowlers, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have played plenty of matches under both captains, and their performances have remained more or less constant. With players as accomplished as them, though, chances are that they would have performed just as well even in a team without a captain.


How players performed under ...
Taylor Waugh
Tests Runs Ave Tests Runs Ave

Hayden 6 241 24.10 37 3654 67.67
Langer 11 747 41.50 50 3695 48.62
Ponting 22 1209 36.64 47 3587 59.78
Slater 30 2358 44.49 27 1676 38.98
M Waugh 50 3663 45.79 40 2025 36.16
Tests Wkts Ave Tests Wkts Ave
McGrath 40 190 22.38 48 217 20.07
Warne 42 199 25.56 38 175 26.58
Gillespie 10 39 21.13 34 133 24.77
Fleming 10 37 27.22 10 38 24.61


* * * * * *

The final target

With an average of 51.25 from 164 Tests and only four more matches to play at most, Waugh has virtually ensured that he ends his career with a 50-plus average. If he plays four more innings in the four Tests, Waugh will end up with an average of 50.28 even if he doesn't add a run to his current tally; if he bats six times, he needs to add just 40, while in eight the corresponding figure is 140. Given India's feeble bowling attack, a realistic challenge is Allan Border's record of 11174 Test runs: Waugh needs 514 more to become Test cricket's highest run-getter. Now that would be a fitting finale to a glittering career.

[Donny]

Break my record Steve: AB
By Robert Craddock - Fox Sports

ALLAN BORDER believes Steve Waugh can produce a stunning punchline to his magnificent career by taking his crown as the greatest runscorer in Test history.

Border believes Waugh would trigger "absolute chaos" at the SCG in his final Test against India in Sydney if he is a chance of eclipsing the mark of 11,174 runs which has stood since Border's retirement in 1994.

Waugh needs 515 in four Tests to claim the record Border set after 16 years of sustained excellence.

"I think he can do it," Border said. "I think 515 runs is well within his grasp. It will give him a focus to keep his standards high, those personal standards that he sets."

Waugh would have to produce one of the best four-Test series in history to snare the record.

"I don't think it is out of reach," Waugh said.

"All records are meant to be broken and will be broken. You look at guys like (Brian) Lara, (Sachin) Tendulkar and (Ricky) Ponting. I think they will all go past the 10,000 mark.

"If I was fortunate enough to get there it will be a short stay anyway.

"If I got that amount of runs in the series it would be great. But I am not going to worry about it. I will be happy enough with what I have achieved."

His long-time team mate, champion fast bowler Glenn McGrath, said those who doubt Waugh's ability to break the record could end up with egg on their face.

"You would be mad if you wrote him off," McGrath said yesterday.

"If a lot of people come out and say 'nah, he can't beat AB as leading runscorer'... it's just like a red rag to a bull. If anyone can do it, Stephen can do it."

Border said he would have no complaints if the player he saw grow from a boy into a man in the 65 Tests they played together eclipsed his mark.

"I think it's wonderful. If, after the first few Tests, he has a bit of a sniff of it, it will add a lot more interest.

"I have just been in a (Cricket Australia) board meeting where they were talking about how the ticket sales for the Tests have gone (through the roof) over the last couple of days. It has been amazing.

"It just shows the public want to send him off in style and if he gets close to that number it will be absolute chaos heading into the last Test.

"I don't begrudge him. I was very happy to bask at the top there but I won't begrudge him going past me. I am happy for him to reach the target and be the No1 man.

"There is a carrot there, isn't there? A little bit of it will depend on how many times he bats. If he only bats four times it will have to be something extraordinary. If he gets half a dozen bats it is definitely attainable.

"If Stephen goes past me I think he will be a caretaker for about three years. That's the way I see it. Tendulkar is up around 9000 runs (8882) and needs about 2 1/2 years to break it. Barring anything major happening he should score 12,000-13,000 runs at least."

During his captaincy career Border did not mollycoddle Waugh.

The two had great mutual respect but the skipper saw Waugh as a self-sufficient young professional, quietly but effectively finding his way in a tough world.

"He was always very confident. He had what it took. He had the eye of a tiger." Border said.

"The better players stand there and work it out for themselves and are the ones who are pretty self-motivated.

"There will be a lot of different emotions going into the Sydney Test match.

"It will be fairly emotional but he is a fairly steely character."

[Donny]

Waugh fought secret pain

By Robert Craddock - Fox Sports

STEVE Waugh has constructed cricket's greatest captaincy record while waging a secret battle against the painful legacy of his worst moment in the game.


For the first time since colliding with Jason Gillespie in Kandy in 1999, Waugh will enter a summer not fearing the migraine attacks that almost ended his career against England last year.

In an extraordinary revelation, Waugh told yesterday how he had suffered regular migraines until two months ago when he visited a physiotherapist who manipulated the skull that carries cricket's most famous baggy green cap.

Gillespie sustained a broken leg and Waugh's nose was bent at a 30-degree angle under his left eye after they collided attempting an outfield catch that left Waugh with a punctured nasal passage and three other minor fractures.

The surgeon who operated on Waugh in Sri Lanka told the Australian captain he was lucky to be alive but the migraines that were a legacy of the incident have haunted him since.

"It was pretty serious," Waugh said. "I had quite a few migraines and I had never had one before that incident.

"I went and saw a muscular skeletal physiotherapist and she did cranial manipulation.

"The next day my head felt much lighter than normal and the tension was out of it. I have not had a migraine since, touch wood. (The physio) said the top joint had seized up and there was a bone (above the cheek) in which the nerve was in the wrong place."

One migraine on the final morning of the fourth Test against England in Melbourne last season affected his batting so badly there were calls for his sacking. He later admitted it was one of the worst innings of his career.

[HAL]

Is the holding of hands a symbolic gesture for humans?

[Donny]

Team comes first
Comment by Steve Waugh - Fox Sports
December 3, 2003

WHAT a week it's been. I have been overwhelmed by the support I've received in response to my intention to retire from international cricket after the Indian series.

People of all ages have stopped to have a chat, shake a hand or ask for an autograph and I feel humbled by all the attention and accolades that I have received.

Keeping a level head and staying grounded has always been the key to success at the top level. These principles must be adhered to if I am to finish as I would like and to stay focused on the job at hand.

The team is, of course, the priority and it will be the first thing I stress at our team meetings.

With the intense media interest in my retirement, it is imperative that we concentrate on the real issues and not my individual situation.

Winning a Test series against a competitive and highly motivated team such as India, who have enough superstars to beat anyone on any given day, is a task we must immerse ourselves in.

Restricting India's batting line-up, I believe, will hold the key to the series. Not having McGrath, Lee and Warne presents us with a great challenge, but it also gives the likes of Williams and Bracken an opportunity to display their talents, as well as providing Bichel and MacGill with the chance to enhance their reputations and statistical achievements.

Cricket lovers shouldn't waste the opportunity to see a genius in action, because that is what Sachin Tendulkar is. India also have the brilliance of Rahul Dravid, the aesthetic beauty of VVS Laxman and the competitive nature of Sourav Ganguly.

These guys are world class and are backed up by an ever-improving attack led by Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.

Brisbane is a magnificent Test match venue which will hopefully help the pacemen on days one and two before becoming a sensational batting pitch and offering turn and bounce toward the end of the match.

I'll be interested to see if all the Indian batsman use their intimidating three-pound-plus bats that murder attacks on low, flat pitches.

In Australia the horizontal shots come into play much more often and a big bat can be hard to manoeuvre and control when playing the cut and hook shots.

Brisbane holds many memories for me both in terms of success and failure, but the match I most recall was against the West Indies back in 1988. These guys were the benchmark in terms of skill, aura, intimidation and athleticism and, as such, we hoped - rather than expected - to do well.

In that frame of mind, one can easily be dominated and dictated to.

I could sense this happening during the '88 Test and wanted to make a stand and try to address this imbalance. My chance came through bowling and it coincided with the arrival of Vivian Richards, a man who literally took control of the match just through his imposing body language.

Running up to bowl to him, something inside me said, "let him have it", and so I summoned up my best three bouncers in a row just to give him the message that it was "game on".

The plan almost came off when I hit him on the back a couple of balls later after he ducked into my slow ball only to be given the benefit of the doubt. It was a gamble and akin to smashing open a hornets nest but it felt right and had to be done.

That game was also the one in which I reached 90 for the first time, only to smash one to Desmond Haynes in the covers off Malcolm Marshall on the last ball.

At the time I remember thinking, am I ever going to get a hundred?

Time has flown by since those days of Barramundi and chips for lunch, walking out to bat via the dog track with practice nets on the ground and the masses throwing down mountains of Fourex on the hill.

I can't wait to lead the boys out on to the 'Gabba for one last time.

[Donny]

Waugh goes on the counterattack

Wisden Cricinfo staff


Steve Waugh has admitted that he is furious at the way he has been portrayed as a "criminal" by the media for his part in the run-out of Damien Martyn during the first Test against India at the Gabba. Waugh slammed his critics for "personal attacks" but also confessed he was rushed in his preparation for his innings which was disastrous from an Australian viewpoint.

He said "too much" was made of the run-out mix-up with Martyn, who sacrificed his wicket - an act Waugh acknowledged as "fantastic". "The next day I felt I'd committed some sort of criminal offence," Waugh said. "I thought it was personal what was written. It was a mistake by both of us, we're both to blame for that run-out yet some of the innuendo I read next day was very disappointing."

Waugh was also criticised for taking some of the limelight away from Justin Langer as he raced out to bat when Langer fell for 121. He said, "Justin had scored his hundred the night before, he'd only scored another 10 runs the next day. That's the way I always play, I always get out there pretty quickly. Certainly there was no disrespect - that's ridiculous to say that."

Waugh added the controversy over his retirement tour, which has been described as destabilising for the team, was completely unfair. He was also blamed for the gimmicky "red rag" campaign started by a Sydney newspaper. "I think I got blamed for the red rags and that my retirement announcement destabilised the team - let's get fair dinkum about this, let's be realistic."

Waugh did admit the emotion associated with playing his final Tests in Australia had affected his preparation. "If I could turn back time I'd probably change my preparation - it was a little bit rushed."

[Donny]

Petty distractions insult to Waugh
By Jeff Wells - Fox Sports
December 11, 2003

GET off Steve Waugh's back. Let the man play and plot. Let's enjoy a fascinating battle of mind and body. Let us see what he can do in his last series when we appear to have a worthy opponent for the summer.

Have his critics noticed, in their blood rush to hack him down to size, that he has already atoned for perceived misdemeanours which ballooned into felonies?

In the second innings against India he should have been stumped early but then started to hit the ball with confidence like he already had in the domestic season.

It was a great chance to play himself in for Adelaide tomorrow.

And, while Allan Border's Test run record suddenly seemed a little too far away, had he cut loose and gone for 100 against the tiring Indian attack he could have advanced himself to within one century of Sunny Gavaskar's all-time Test total of 34.

Imagine the accolades, the front- page headlines, if he had blasted another ton, if he had shown once again that red rags are for more than wiping sweat -- wave them in his face, like the doubters did last summer, and he will stuff them down their throats, like he did with that sizzling century against the Poms at the SCG.

Plainly Waugh has been under excruciating pressure for a long time. His recent record with the bat -- who wouldn't have him in their team even at 38 -- warranted a chance to go to India next October, to atone for that last series loss.

And he is such a colossus in India that his last stand there would have been an enormous boost for the Test game. But the selectors do not appear to forgive age or acknowledge the value of captaincy and diplomacy.

With no guarantees, he quit his own way and avoided a scene that had the potential to rival Gough Whitlam's in the annals of rotten dismissals. But some baggers jumped in and accused him of destabilising the team.

Waugh looked strung tight when he charged out to bat in the first innings -- no doubt eager to make his mark on the series immediately -- and was accused of ruining Justin Langer's exit.

Then he ran out Damien Martyn and I put the blame 65 per cent on Waugh for charging like he had his eyes closed, and 35 per cent on Martyn for not snapping up the available third run.

Statistics were produced to paint Waugh as a selfish man. In 27 runouts he had survived 23 times -- but only now had it been used against him.

It proved nothing. Some players are less likely to hesitate, more likely to make a snap decision and go with it, than others.

Later Waugh said some of what was written sounded "personal". It was suddenly apparent to the public that not everybody loves Steve Waugh -- he has been a little too private, and made too much money with his books, to please everybody who wanted pieces of him -- and that when he is on the way out is the perfect time to wound him.

Then he was out for a duck, stepping on his wicket, and the steam had gone out of the fairytale.

But there he was on Monday rolling along with 56 against his name when he put the team first and made that surprise declaration.

No doubt if he had batted on his critics would have accused him of selfishness again.

The declaration had little chance of succeeding -- despite Nathan Bracken's two quick wickets -- and I didn't hear a single commentator who wasn't surprised.

But it was a case of Waugh beginning the process of exercising his willpower over India. He was already 0-2 to Sourav Ganguly -- a man he really wants to beat.

Ganguly had sent Australia in and outscored them, even without Sachin Tendulkar making a run. And he had made a glorious hundred to Waugh's duck.

So Waugh was sending out the message that there would be no respite. And he may have had some effect. In the first innings openers Chopra and Sehwag had been pesky -- now his new boy Bracken had victories over them.

Even so, India had been impressive. They looked a team loaded with athleticism and skill and responsive to their captain. After a drubbing on the first day they picked themselves up.

And while there is bounce in Melbourne there is no "gimme" in Perth in this series. If Adelaide is flat their class batsmen such as Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman could pile on the runs.

Stacked offside fields might not work against such glorious skill with the wrists.

And if Sydney spins, Kumble and Harbhajan could come into their own.

This is an Australian team without three strike bowlers McGrath, Warne and Lee. It is a situation in which leadership is paramount.

So let us hope that, with no further petty distractions, Waugh can conduct his final tutorial on what has made him the most successful captain in the game.