Test of Will
Page 13
J.L. was said to have been offered the opportunity to coach England before the 2015 Ashes campaign, and while J.L. said he’d remain in Perth for the sake of his four daughters, my personal belief is he knew the kangaroo tattooed on his backside would’ve given him a swift kick he’d never forget!
RICKY PONTING
I always just tried to think about being a leader, no matter where I was at. If I was a young bloke in a team I thought I could be a leader just with energy, the way I train and trying to make myself a better fielder and player. Because I thought if someone else saw me doing that, they’d want to do it no matter how old they were. So when I came in the side and Mark Waugh was the best fielder, I was going to train harder every day to make sure I was better than him, and if I got better than him maybe he’d want to chase me.
—’PUNTER’ ON LEADERSHIP
Full name: Ricky Thomas Ponting
Nickname: Punter
Birthdate: 19 December 1974
Birthplace: Launceston, Tasmania
Major teams: Australia, Tasmania, Hobart Hurricanes, Antigua Hawksbills, ICC World XI, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Somerset, Surrey
Role: Top-order batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
Cricket relative: Uncle Greg Campbell (Tasmania & Australia)
TESTS: 168
Test debut: v Sri Lanka at Perth, 8–11 December 1995
Last Test: v South Africa at Perth, 30 November – 3 December 2012
Test runs: 13,378
Highest score: 257
Average: 51.85
Strike rate: 58.72
Test centuries: 41
Catches: 196
Test wickets: 5
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS: 375
Runs: 13,704
Highest score: 164
Average: 42.03
Strike rate: 80.39
ODI centuries: 30
Catches: 160
ODI wickets: 3
I spent a lot of time with Ricky—although, I call him Rick these days because he’s over 40—at the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide. Even though he was only 17 he’d been saddled with the title of ‘future Australian captain’ and if he thought that was a burden, it never showed. His quality as a batsman was undeniable and his understanding of all things cricket was quite incredible. He had a tremendous appreciation for the tactics and strategies, and if a school student devoted themselves to their studies like he did cricket they’d go a long way. Rick was only 17 when he was picked for Tasmania in 1992 and he was a baby-faced 21-year-old when he made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in Perth in 1995. Even though he was dismissed four runs short of his century in that match, it didn’t seem to matter much that he copped a dodgy lbw decision because as his teammates we realised he’d be around for a very long time.
I remember Rick as probably the best player of the short ball I ever saw. He’d really take it on. His pull shot was magnificent and there’s a school of thought that no one played it better than him. The pull is a courageous shot because when the batsman plays it, he knows the ball is heading at his chin—and at pace—and he has to commit to it because there’s no backing out. Like so many of Australia’s great batsmen, he wasn’t tall but he possessed a beautiful sense of awareness at the crease. He was nimble and calm and fearless. I thought for quite a while that he’d be Test cricket’s greatest run-scorer because he was that good. However, I think Sachin Tendulkar has taken that mantle from the reach of everyone.
Nevertheless, Rick was a batsman who shone on the brightest stage. While other players were suffocated by pressure, he treated it as oxygen and I point to the 2003 World Cup final against India in South Africa as an example of that. Rick blasted 140 off 121 deliveries and his knock set the tone for us to roll India, a team who was crushed by the weight of expectations from a billion fans who demanded that they beat us. In another effort that summed him up, Rick scored centuries in each innings of his 100th Test match in 2005 when Australia played South Africa. I also think it says plenty for his fortitude—and, I guess, longevity—that he batted 196 times as a No. 3 Test batsman, a position regarded by the greats as the toughest place to bat. While he played in an era where Australian batsmen such as the Waugh brothers, Matt Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke and Damien Martyn dominated the world’s bowling attacks, the statistics suggest he was top of the class. In his 168 Tests he hit 71 international centuries; scored the most centuries in a calendar year by an Aussie (seven in 2006); passed 1000 Test runs in a calendar year on five occasions; was the first batsman to score over 1000 runs at four different grounds; and was one of only five batsmen to have scored back-to-back double Test centuries. That effort was only enhanced by his brilliant fielding. His 196 catches—the most by an Aussie fieldsman outside of the wicketkeeper—also proves he had a safe pair of hands, and if ever there was a marksman in the field it was him. He featured in plenty of run-outs with some great throws.
Rick was also a very good captain. He was tactically astute and a good communicator; he was a skipper who could manage his players and who never expected his players to do something he wasn’t prepared to do himself. He certainly led by example and I think it was fitting that his final match in Australia was a Sheffield Shield final victory. It pleases me to think of the impact he had on the team’s young players, such as Jordan Silk. His ability to inspire is the reason why I have no doubt he’ll be a part of the Cricket Australia system in the near future as a batting consultant, if not coach, because he has so much to offer.
There was a time when Rick and his family lived a few streets away from me at Cronulla, and I remember finding a few golf balls among the shrubs in our garden. It was a mystery at first. When I looked to see the angle from where they were hit, I realised the cheeky bugger was having a swing in his backyard! I’m not fibbing when I say my first reaction was to search for the Big Bertha in my golf bag to return serve!
MARK WAUGH
I can remember my first cricket match when I was seven, probably because I got a duck that day. My first really strong memory of watching Test cricket is the Lillee/Thomson/ Walters/Chappell era. I can recall watching Doug Walters hit Bob Willis for six at the WACA off the last ball of the day to bring up his hundred. I liked the way Walters played.
—’JUNIOR’ ON CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
Full name: Mark Edward Waugh
Nickname: Junior
Birthdate: 2 June 1965
Birthplace: Canterbury, New South Wales
Major teams: Australia, New South Wales, Essex
Role: Batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium, right-arm off break
Cricket relatives: Brothers Steve Waugh (NSW & Australia), Dean Waugh (NSW & SA), Daniel Waugh (NSW under-17s)
TESTS: 128
Test debut: v England at Adelaide, 25–29 January 1991
Last Test: v Pakistan at Sharjah, 19–22 October 2002
Test runs: 8029
Highest score: 153*
Average: 41.81
Strike rate: 52.27
Test centuries: 20
Catches: 181
Test wickets: 59
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS: 244
Runs: 8500
Highest score: 173
Average: 39.35
Strike rate: 76.90
ODI centuries: 18
Catches: 108
ODI wickets: 85
I rank Junior as perhaps the most naturally gifted batsman I ever saw. Through his flicks, cuts and drives he added an artistic expression to the game, and as a No. 11 who treated every run like a lottery win, I was envious of the way in which Mark Waugh did it all so easily. He was a very elegant player and one who was blessed with all of the shots, but what I’ve realised I admired most about Mark was he kept it all very simple—when he was out he’d fallen to either a good ball or poor shot. With Junior it was never a
case of his being out of form or failing because of mental issues, he was a batsman who just played the game and you could tell he loved every moment. He was pure class and I think it says a lot about his approach to the game that when he was once asked to name the batsmen he enjoyed watching, he answered Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Adam Gilchrist—as batsmen they were brothers to different mothers.
Junior was made to wait so long for his baggy green cap he was nicknamed ‘Afghan’, as in the so-called ‘forgotten war’ in the 1980s. However, he declared his intent as a batsman during his Test debut against England at Adelaide Oval in 1991 when he was selected at 25 years of age to replace his older brother Steve (older by four minutes). He was sent to the crease with Australia lurching at 4–104 and he peeled off an elegant century, becoming the 15th Aussie player to score a century upon debut. Later on, Junior would reveal he went into the game unaware of the pressure involved in Test cricket and that was what probably allowed for him to ‘breathe’. He finished at stumps on what was described as a ‘glorious’ 116 not out. I think Junior summed up his confidence when, after Allan Border congratulated him on a job well done when he returned to the dressing room, Junior said, ‘You should have picked me years ago.’
Like all cricketers he had his tough times. He bagged two pairs in the Test series—four Test ducks in 15 balls—during the 1992 tour of Sri Lanka. While the boys nicknamed him ‘Audi’—because the four zeroes looked like the motor car’s logo—he remained philosophical. Rather than curse his misfortune Junior reasoned anyone can get out for a duck, saying it only takes a good ball to end an innings (and I can vouch for that!). However, his place in the Australian team was being scrutinised, and as much as he tried not to let that run of outs scar him, he admitted that he started wondering where his next run would come from and how the gaps that seemed to be in the field were no longer there. He of course overcame that. While some of his harsher critics wanted him to be more like his twin brother and fight for every run, he maintained that he did not understand the so-called ‘gritty innings’. A gritty innings is when a batsman grafts for each and every run in a day-long innings when he could go out and hit the same 60 or 70 runs in a few hours. It was Junior’s basic instinct to attack. Few who saw his innings in the final Test against the West Indies in Jamaica during the 1995 series will forget how he and Steve scored over 300 runs between them, and some believe Junior’s cuts helped turn the tide in our favour.
Although he loathed the limelight—he did not like the fame that went with being a high-profile cricketer—he was born for the big stage and he shone brightly in the 1996 World Cup when he overcame the heat and humidity of the subcontinent to peel off three centuries in the tournament. As a fieldsman he had safe hands, and before Ricky Ponting took it from him Junior had the record number of Test catches with 181. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better slips fieldsman—if Mark was artistic with the bat he was a poet on the field. He took some spectacular catches at second slip and possessed a level of anticipation that I thought bordered on ESP. He could field at silly point just as brilliantly for the spin bowlers and looked at home whenever he was required to field at short mid-wicket or mid-wicket. Mark accepted a role as a selector for the Australian team in 2014 and I was happy to hear of that appointment because he has a lot to offer. I am sure he will encourage players to back themselves and trust their natural skills.
STEVE WAUGH
Winning leads to complacency. It’s just human nature. So you need to be constantly aware that this is going to happen. It can be a trap. You can’t rely on past success and so you must go forward facing the truth head-on. What I mean by this is that sometimes it’s necessary to make hard or unpopular decisions that ultimately benefit the team (or the organisation). Even when these truths are things that you don’t want to hear, that you don’t want to believe. Like cutting a popular player from the next Test series. Assuming nothing also means that you don’t have to continue to follow a path or direction that’s no longer working. It’s never too late to review and re-focus.
—’TUGGER’ ON WHY YOU SHOULD ASSUME NOTHING
Full Name: Stephen Rodger Waugh
Nickname: Tugger
Birthdate: 2 June 1965
Birthplace: Canterbury, New South Wales
Major teams: Australia, New South Wales, Ireland, Kent, Somerset
Role: Middle-order batsman
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm medium
Cricket relatives: Brothers Mark Waugh (NSW & Australia), Dean Waugh (NSW & SA), Daniel Waugh (NSW under-17s)
TESTS: 168
Test debut: v India at Melbourne, 26–30 December 1985
Last Test: v India at Sydney, 2–6 January 2004
Test runs: 10,927
Highest score: 200
Average: 51.06
Strike rate: 48.64
Test centuries: 32
Catches: 112
Test wickets: 92
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS: 325
Runs: 7569
Highest score: 120*
Average: 32.90
Strike rate: 75.91
ODI centuries: 3
Catches: 111
ODI wickets: 195
Steve may have been Mark’s twin but he was his opposite in so many ways. He was determined, gritty, dogmatic and described throughout his playing career as a ‘street fighter’ because he placed such a high price on his wicket. He was one player who was prepared to wear deliveries on his body and he did not care if he needed to play ugly to score runs. I remember him as a cricketer who was so focused, so determined he refused to give the opposition an inch. His mental strength was incredible and he loved Test cricket because he saw it as a test of character and of mettle. He described sledging as ‘mental disintegration’ and I think that was a far better term to use. He saw it as getting into the batsman’s head by turning the screws and making the opposition ask questions of themselves. He—supposedly—did it in Trinidad to Curtly Ambrose during the 1995 Frank Worrell series when Ambrose had to be dragged away from his famous mid-pitch confrontation with Tugger by his skipper Richie Richardson. It’s one of the defining sports photos from that era and some say it symbolises our team’s determination to dethrone the Windies as the kings of cricket. Twenty years after that flashpoint, Ambrose, who at two metres tall towered over Steve, revealed that it threatened to escalate into a fight and that he had even threatened to knock Steve out. Apparently his pace partner Kenny Benjamin had made his blood boil when he suggested Steve had ‘cursed’ at him and the more he thought about it the angrier he became. Ambrose thought he’d been disrespected and when he demanded to know whether Steve swore at him the paceman was not impressed by the Australian’s answer. And he lost it. When Steve took strike Australia was 3–14, and while Australia was dismissed for 128, Waugh finished unbeaten on 63 after three tough hours in which he copped plenty of short stuff. ‘I was left standing there thinking, I’ve smashed open a hornet’s nest here, what am I going to do? wrote Waugh of the stand-off. ‘It’s on TV, there are millions of people watching, you can’t look like a coward and back away now. You’ve got to stand there and pretend you’re tough.’
There was nothing false about Steve’s toughness because I don’t think he ever asked any player to do what he was not prepared to do himself. Before his back injury forced him to stop bowling, his medium-pacers took the fight to the Windies with short-pitched deliveries and, just like his exchange, it won him few friends in the Caribbean. However, he always backed himself and I don’t think there is any greater example of his fighting qualities than his last ball century on the second day of the SCG Test against England in 2003. Australia had already won the Ashes but Steve’s place in the team was being questioned and the selectors did not do anything to calm the situation when they said they could not guarantee him anything. It was a challenge and when Steve was sent in to bat with Australia at 3–56 in the chase for 362, he looked like a man on a missi
on. He made 47 when the last drinks break was taken and with the advice of the media personality Andrew Denton ringing in his ears, ‘Don’t be home before six’, he unleashed on the English attack. Denton had won the right to carry the drinks at a charity auction and he would later say he was the last person to see Steve before he became a god. In the final over of the day Steve was up against the spin bowler Richard Dawson, and with five runs needed for his triple figures he just blocked them. He hit three off the fourth ball and Adam Gilchrist gave him his shot at a magic moment when he found a single. I wasn’t surprised when Nasser Hussain took his time to set the field and chat to Dawson—it was mental disintegration or gamesmanship—but I couldn’t help but feel annoyed as he made my mate wait. When the moment came, Waugh swung and the ball sped to the boundary. It was a special moment and for so many people it epitomised the fighting qualities of the national team’s skipper.
The success Steve, and Australia, enjoyed in the latter stages of his career was a far cry from when he made his Test debut against India in 1985 when he scored 13 and 5 at the MCG as a 20-year-old. Australia had lost a number of experienced players to either retirement or those who were suspended for going on rebel tours of South Africa. It was a tough initiation, but Steve being Steve kept his eyes and ears open and the lessons he learnt from the school of hard knocks served him well. I also take heart in knowing that as a father of a son who loves playing cricket—his son Austin has played for a few representative teams—the former Test skipper, who was inducted in the Cricket Australia Hall of Fame as soon as he was eligible, passes on his observations about his 15-year-old’s technique via his son’s club coach because kids don’t listen to their parents, even if they happen to be a former Test captain! My James is exactly the same, although I took it as a triumph that James acknowledged recently that I knew a bit about cricket. Steve Waugh is a teammate who I think can hold his head high because, as we saw that day against Ambrose, he was one guy who, come hell or high water, walked the walk.