Stephen Rodger Waugh, or Steve Waugh as he is popularly known is one of the most successful batsmen and captains in the world. Born in 1965 in Canterbury, Sydney, this right handed batsman played for the Australian national team for nearly two decades. Apart from Australia, he has also played for Ireland. He has ventured into county cricket as well and has played for teams such as Kent and Somerset.
Steve Waugh made his international test debut in 1985 against India and his one day international debut against New Zealand at Melbourne in 1986. From there on, he shaped a cricketing career complete with 10927 test runs and 7569 ODI runs. He started as a batsman as well as bowler, but could not hold on to his place in the Australian team for so long as 18 months, when he lost his place to his younger twin Mark Waugh. This was his catharsis. Later on however, he was recalled and he made some changes in his game to stay on. Some of the changes were that he slowed down on his batting, wherein instead of the usual habit of flailing the deliveries, he waited for the right ones to score of. He also gave up his bowling, but this was largely due to his back problems. But from now on, there was no looking back for this cricketing giant. Some of his most memorable innings include the one in which he scored 200 at Jamaica in 1994-95 and his twin hundreds at Old Trafford in 1997 which led to the Ashes win for the Aussies. Thereafter, he succeeded Mark Taylor as the test team captain and led his team in 15 of the record 16 consecutive wins.
With a strike rate of over 75 in the ODIs and nearly 50 in the test matches, he was a player who held his own in the international arena. However, despite his contribution to Australian cricket, he was unceremoniously left of the ODI squad of the team after a dismal performance by the Australian team in the 2001-02 VB series. He, therefore, played his last ODI against South Africa in 2002 at Perth. Nevertheless, he continued as the test captain and led his team to yet another Ashes win in 2002-03. It was under his tenure that Australia defeated Pakistan to win the 1999 World Cup in England, turned Australia’s fortunes drastically and brought Australia to the No.1 spot at the international level. At that time, he was only the second Australian with Tom Moody to win the world cup twice. As successful as a captain he was, his one wish was to capture the final frontier, i.e. to beat the Indian team in India which was only later achieved by his successor, Ricky Ponting.
Apart from being a sportsperson, Steve Waugh was also a charitable person who helped set up a charity for the daughters of lepers in Kolkata in India. He also wrote a series of successful tour dairies. He finally retired from international cricket after the 2003-04 test series against India, the same team against which he had debuted.
Steve Waugh is a legend in the world of cricket. Likewise, he has been honored with prestigious awards like the ‘Allan Border Medal’ which he received in 2001. He is also the winner of the ‘Wisden Cricketer of the Year’ award for the year 1989 and ‘Wisden Australian Cricketer of the Year’ for the year 2000-01. For a player so great, these awards are but a reminder to his contribution to the game which shall be remembered for years to come.
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