NAME: Steven Waugh

AGE: 38

NATIONALITY: Australian

CLAIM TO FAME: Exploring new grounds

TO survive for so long in the cut-throat world of Australian cricket, one needs to be Steve Waugh. It requires all the grit, determination, resolve, commitment and, indeed, the skills that Waugh has shown over the years. But above all, one has to have that rare ability to return from the brink and deliver in the face of adversity. Just when you think, the elder Waugh is going to go, he does something to make it awkward for the selectors.

The tongues were already wagging in the run-up to the series against Bangladesh, with a lot of known faces suggesting that Steve should finally call it quits on his own as, according to them, there was hardly any challenge for him in taking the field against the minnows of world cricket who have lost as many as 18 of the 19 Tests they have played thus far. Nothing doing, said Steve. “Playing for Australia is motivation enough. There should not be any need for motivation when you are playing for your country. I would love to play for Australia as long as I can,” he stressed.

That is typical Steve Waugh for you. But recent reports in the media are some indication that even the never-say-die Steve may now be thinking in terms of what he is going to do once the inevitable happens. According to reports, he is planning to star in an English-language movie that he plans to shoot in India where he does a lot of charity work during off-season.

The film’s script, which is said to be already in hand, is believed to have been done by an Australian writer, and Steve is looking for an Indian director and a financier for the project in which Steve himself will be playing the central role, most probably playing himself in the movie.

Finding a producer may be not that hard in India in view of the great following that Steve enjoys in India which has a lot more to do with the charity fund-raising that he does for a leprosy home near Calcutta, than for purely cricketing reasons. The fact that he has visited the facility four times in the last three years goes to show his commitment to that cause.

If the project goes through, the world will have a look at the Steve the artiste after having a prolonged look at Steve the cricketer. If his personality is anything to go by, Steve knows what he is doing, and when he decides to do something, it has to be good.