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Waugh deserves to go out in style

Melbourne Dec. 22. The last chapter of Steve Waugh's career will be played out over the next few weeks in Melbourne and Sydney. While his reputation will not be affected one iota by how he, or his team, finishes in these two games, he will be as keen as ever to succeed. He will remember how he finished and knowing Steve he will want to go out in a blaze of glory.

Criticism of the early announcement of his impending retirement, and its possible effect on the team, as well as the running mix up with Damien Martyn in the Brisbane Test match has been taken hard. His usual response is to perform one of his Herculean feats on the field to quieten the mob but this time he surprised everyone with a full frontal attack on the media.

On top of that, the loss in Adelaide has provided him with the motivation to summon up one last mental effort to round out his stellar career with the perfect storybook finish. The Indian team will not want to underestimate the strength of his will.

The beginning of Stephen's career came about prematurely and his early days were marked with frustration. He struggled to come to grips with the requirements of Test cricket and a few bad decisions helped to shape his attitude to life as he saw it, and to Test cricket. For a while, I think he thought he was unlucky and this helped to hold him back. His development into the cricketer he became in the second half of his career had a lengthy gestation period.

Apart from his personal struggle, Test cricket was pretty tough for Australia under Allan Border at that time. Following the retirement of key individuals and a mass exodus to South Africa of the next most experienced players, Allan Border was left with a side that found it difficult to come to grips with the demands of Test cricket.

As a selector at the time, I could empathise with Allan and his frustration. He felt let down by a number who had defected for the lure of the Rand and was struggling with the demands of captaincy and being the premier batsman of the team.

The selection panel realised that turning players over regularly was not going to help the cause so we made a decision to look to the medium to long-term future of Australian cricket. It was decided to blood some players who had the potential to lead Australia back to the top of world cricket. What we needed was to identify some young players who had the talent and the temperament for the battle at the top level.

Three players stood out as the ones around which we could build a team for the future. These players had talent and seemed to have the toughness to add to the fighting spirit of Allan Border to provide the foundation for a team that would put their life on the line for their country and their captain.

Geoff Marsh, David Boon and Steve Waugh were chosen as the `three pillars' around which we could build a team. Along with Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes and, later, Shane Warne they led Australia back from the dark days of the mid eighties.

Along the way they all struggled and were left out of the team for short periods but when they were first chosen they were told quite clearly that they had been ear-marked for the future and that they would be given time to find their feet in Test cricket.

Steve's own form ebbed and flowed with the vicissitudes of the team but it was during this period that he developed a pathological dislike for losing as well as his legendary mental toughness. Brother Mark briefly replaced him in the team around this time and this appeared to act as a catalyst for him to harden his resolve to make it as a Test cricketer.

Steve appeared to make a conscious decision to eschew all risk and to put a high price on his wicket. As the team's fortunes turned upward, Steve decided he wanted to become one of the leading players and put himself in line for the captaincy in the future.

When Allan Border retired Mark Taylor was made captain and immediately stamped his own personality on the team. Tactically he was instinctively more positive than Allan and the team went from strength to strength. McGrath and Warne led the bowling attack while Stephen came into his own as one of the leading batsmen.

He appeared to lobby hard for the captaincy when Mark Taylor's career came to a stuttering end and he has proved he was the right man for the job. Early signs gave no indication of what was to come but once he committed to the role during the 1999 World Cup, he has forged a remarkable record. Only failure to beat India in India stands out as blight on the ledger.

His teams have dominated opponents like few others. Clive Lloyd's West Indian teams won everywhere but were tested on occasions while Bradman's teams brushed most opposition aside but none has cast a bigger shadow over the competition than the Australian teams under Steve Waugh. His captaincy record may never be surpassed.

Stephen will be remembered as a strong individual who used his mental strength and a powerful square cut to parlay a career that will be compared with the best players the game has experienced. He deserves to go out in the style we have come to expect of him. I would like to back him to make a hundred in his final Test in his hometown.

GREG CHAPPELL

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