AND so the curtain finally fell over what truly was a distinguished career. Steven Waugh has marched his way into history and has reserved a place alongside the alltime greats who ever graced the game with their presence. To watch him play a characteristic Steve Waugh innings in his last Test was something of a feast for the connoisseurs of the game.
Waugh was very much in the thick of things till the very last minute, and it would have been nice had he got those twenty runs and finished off with a century. But that, perhaps, would have been too fairytale a finish, and Nature had to intervene.
But Waugh, the kind of character he is, will not mind missing out on that century, for he clearly was not playing for the records in his last series. Had that been so, he would have definitely waited till overcoming compatriot Allan Border at the top of the list of great run accumulators. The fact that he announced his retirement plans almost a couple of months in advance was indication enough that statistics were not on his mind.
There may well be a line of argument that the decision might have been forced on him by Cricket Australia, like it had done with Ian Healy who had to make way for Adam Gilchrist when he was just five short of a personal landmark of 400 career dismissals in Tests. Even if the argument is taken on face value, it only adds to the stature of Waugh. By having announced his retirement plans in advance, he had taken it upon himself to prove his detractors wrong and go out on a high note.
The pressure of making such commitments to one’s own self is huge. Anyone having been on the international circuit for any reasonable period of time would know what it is like, and it entails. There is already so much pressure around a cricketer’s life, and it is generally no fun raising the stakes yourself, but Waugh, as we all know, had an appetite for the unusual, and his decision to announce retirement four Tests in advance was only a confirmation of that.
Looking back, Waugh had a modest beginning, and it was much later in his life that he showed signs of being something special. He neither had the elegance nor the flamboyance of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, but he certainly had a lot more grit and resilience than the two of them put together. What he lacked in terms of natural talent, he made up through hard work and determination. For instance, we all know of his struggle with the rising ball, from earlier embarrassments to latter-day domination, which was possible only because he worked at it, and worked at it hard. This may not sound a great example to many, but, believe me, it is not easy to fight against one’s natural instincts.
Steve Waugh’s lasting impression on the game, however, was as the captain of Australia. He had remarkable success in making the lads follow his own philosophy of hard work and fighting to the very end. While the Australians had already become a major force in world cricket before Waugh became the captain, they had a habit of losing Test matches once they had clinched the series. The world record achieved under Waugh of sixteen straight wins was possible only after Waugh took care of that unprofessional tendency.
Steven Waugh will always be remembered in the annals of history as the man who took his team to unprecedented heights. More than being a cricketer, he was a great fighter, and will surely be the role model for a whole generation.
AND so the curtain finally fell over what truly was a distinguished career. Steven Waugh has marched his way into history and has reserved a place alongside the alltime greats who ever graced the game with their presence. To watch him play a characteristic Steve Waugh innings in his last Test was something of a feast for the connoisseurs of the game.
