Steve Waugh to Retire in India

[Donny]

Steve Waugh to retire – next year in India
Wisden CricInfo staff - July 12, 2003


Steve Waugh has said that he would like to retire at the end of Australia's tour of India in 2004. He then intends to devote more time to Udayan, the Kolkata home for children of leprosy patients which he supports.

According to a report by The Press Trust of India, Waugh said in an interview in Sydney: "I would like to end my career in India." He has long described India as the "final frontier" for the Australian team to conquer, and swore after Australia's defeat in 2001 that he would be back to set the record straight.

That is not, however, reason for Khaled Mahmud and his boys to relax – Waugh has not forgotten Bangladesh. "The India series is still a long way off," Waugh said, "and I am focussing on Bangladesh at the moment." One can imagine him rubbing his hands in glee as he says this.

For all the brutality Waugh inflicts on the cricket field, though, at heart he remains a softie. His support – monetary and otherwise – for Udayan has earned him immense respect in India. Waugh does not stop at charitable donations – the girls' wing at Udayan was funded by him – but visits the home regularly. He explained his commitment thus: "Udayan is my pursuit for life. It is not something you start and give up. I am committed to continued support to Udayan.

"We are soon going to start another school for 200 needy children," Waugh added. He admitted that despite being a celebrity, raising funds was a difficult matter, and said that "it would be good to get some funding from businesses in Australia and India".

Waugh had recently announced his plans to make a film based on Udayan, which has already been scripted, though, as of now, there is no director or producer. Waugh did not clarify rumours as to whether he would act in the film, but merely said, pithily, "I am a cricketer".

Until next year, when Australia come to India, he certainly is.

[Donny]

Well, this is an interesting development.

If Tugga maintains enough good form to stay on the right side of the selectors, he would play another 11 Tests.

He needs another 909 runs to overtake AB's 11174 record total of Test cricket runs.

He averages a touch over 64 runs per Test. On that average he'd reach 11000 - 174 short - but with 4 Tests coming up against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, he may not get to the crease all that often.

He's a shrewdy though and this may be his way of heading off being stood down before the tour of India which as most cricket followers would know is 'the last frontier' for our Stevie.

A series win over there would complete an incredible career for a wonderful cricketer and captain and I hope it pans out that way.

[HAL]

How do you know what he needs?

[couragous cloke]

he's been 1 of my hero's. ill miss him, hopefully he goes out on a high, not like his brother.

[Donny]

Waugh second-best Australian cricketer ever: Marsh
Wisden Cricinfo staff - August 1, 2003


Geoff Marsh, coach of the Zimbabwe team, has rated Steve Waugh as the second-best Australian cricketer, next only to Don Bradman. "I think he has to be rated as one of the best, if not the best ... obviously Bradman stands alone, but I reckon his record speaks for itself," Marsh said of Waugh, who has scored four hundreds in his last eight Test innings to resurrect his international career.

Marsh was all-praise for Waugh's ability to combat pressure, both as a captain and as a batsman. "His captaincy record is outstanding and his performance with the bat speaks for itself. All Stephen's (32) hundreds in Test cricket, they are all under pressure.

"Stephen's such a competitor, he loves the game of cricket and he's so determined to keep going. He enjoys the captaincy, he enjoys winning and he enjoys the team."

According to Marsh, two of the best centuries he had seen in international cricket came off Waugh's bat – his unbeaten 120 against South Africa in a crunch match of the 1999 World Cup, and his 102 against England at Sydney earlier this year.

"That hundred he got in Sydney last year was just magnificent," Marsh said. "It was the second best innings I have ever seen in world cricket. The other one was his hundred in the World Cup in 1999 in Headingley, when we had to beat South Africa to get into the semi-finals. Great knocks, inspirational, great for the game."

Waugh recently went past Clive Lloyd's record of maximum Test wins as captain, and is only 654 runs away from toppling Allan Border as the highest run-scorer in Tests. With Test series against Zimbabwe, India and Sri Lanka lined up over the next 12 months, Waugh is well on his way to breaking another record.

[The Prototype]

Shame, I think he is good enough to play on after the Tour of India, but he would know more about his body then anyone. Maybe his body can't take much more cricket. Or he wants to spend time with his family, and do other things then cricket.

[Donny]

Waugh wants to keep 'right on dancing'
Lynn McConnell - October 14, 2003

Success sometimes brings its own problems and the unrelenting climb towards all-time greatness that Steve Waugh's Australians continue on, has brought concerns for the future. They say that the ageing population is a problem around the world, and it appears to be the case for the Australian side, at least in the minds of the selectors.

It was ironic that the retirement of older aged players like Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, and the loss of players to rebel tours to South Africa, resulted in the last weak period of Australian cricket in the mid-1980s. Waugh emerged in the midst of that trough when the Australians were beaten, horror of horrors, at home by New Zealand.

Waugh, first capped in the summer of 1985-86, is now riding beside Father Time on the front seat of the cricket stagecoach, and the next big bump could see him tipped out of his seat. He has reportedly been told that he cannot expect certainty of selection during Australia's home season. Waugh has not responded to the claims.

For the moment he holds the cards. As was seen from his outstanding century against England in Sydney last summer, he has immense support from the Australian public. They have accepted his absence from the one-day side, but judging by the reception the crowd gave him as he walked out to bat at the WACA Ground in Perth, there is a large amount of public sentiment with him in his cause to make his farewell appearances in India next year.

Given his form, there is little chance that the Australian selectors would win a case at the Employment Court were selection matters ever decided in that forum. In his last 10 Tests, since the third Test against England last summer, Waugh has scored 806 runs at an average of 100.75. Form, for the moment, isn't really an issue.

Some of the creakiness in the Australian machine became apparent in Perth when Jason Gillespie and Stuart MacGill were unable to bowl during all of Zimbabwe's second innings. Better equipped sides would have used that to their advantage to have saved the match. The Zimbabweans were only ever a decent rain shower away from denying Australia the victory.

But there was something symbolic in the fact that it was Waugh who took the catch that finally ended the match, much later than the Australians would have liked. However, his inings of 78 which seemed destined to provide him with that first century on the WACA in Tests, also proved a key in the final victory as it provided solidity at a time when Zimbabwe could have made a breakthrough. They didn't, but there was also an assuredness about Waugh's intent that could not be understated.

There are also the matters of the runs required to pass Allan Border to become the greatest runscorer in Test history, and the two centuries required to equal Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 Test centuries. These are realistic goals for a fit Waugh, and goals that most Australians would see as fair reward for a career so notably played for Australia. But sentiment has never replaced form in cricket selection, especially in Australia.

The politics of the Australian scene promise to be just as intriguing as the play in the weeks ahead. Perhaps Steve Waugh might start whistling "Mr Bojangles" more often when the selectors are around, after all it was Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson who once said: "I won't be old till my feet hurt, and they only hurt when I don't let 'em dance enough, so I'll keep right on dancing."