Yes sir, I am bewitched by the elder Waugh's aura. And I think I am just going to reach my hand into my back pocket and the contents therein will unfold in the next paragraph.
He is awesome, he is great , he is the Ice Man. Mr. Dependable, man with nerves of steel, that is Steve Waugh. You knew that was coming , didn't you? Blasphemous me. Why? Why not? I told you I was reaching for my back pocket !!
I think you guys might do with some convincing here! So strap up, lock the side-bar , and we will let the roller-coaster roll.
Steve beat his younger twin Mark by 4 minutes to Planet Earth, on June 2, 1965. Canterbury, New South Wales had just given Australia the next best batsman after the Don.
Steve Waugh wore the green baggy for the first time against India at Melbourne in 1985. His start wasn't exactly a brilliant one , with 13 runs on the board he holed out to Kapil Dev.
But since then Steve has come a long way, almost on the 9000 run mark he has developed a reputation of being the "Crisis-Man". Surrender is one word that does not exist in Steve's dictionary. He is a fighter and never looses sight of victory.
One of his greatest hallmarks is his unwavering concentration. He is focussed on the task at all times. Gritty, determined, diligent…. I might just run out of adjectives here !! But hey, I can always get more from my back pocket!! No, I wont go there… at least not right now.
His unusual "bent-down" stance has proved to be of great succor to him. In his 215 innings, Steve has amassed 8965 runs at a fantastic average of 50.93 ! He has 25 centuries and 49 half- centuries in his bag of achievements.
Steve has always been a team player. He was content to playing second fiddle to Mark Taylor when the latter was the captain. As is endemic of cricket boards, the ACB chose Ian Healy as vice-captain over Steve. Nevertheless, Steve accepted the fate. It wasnt as brutal or miserable for him as my metaphors would suggest, but for a man of his abilities, being not even considered for the post would have meant something.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Abhishek Choudhari's Cricket Batsmen topic, please visit the Discussions page.