|
April 21, 1998
NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
DEAR REDIFF
|
The Cricket Interview/Steve Waugh
'The Tests don't bother me. I was not in charge!'
Stephen Rodger Waugh was born in Sydney on June 2,
1965. And right from boyhood on, he along with twin Mark were involved not only in cricket but in most other sports, with Stephen being being selected for Australia's youth football team.
He finally settled for cricket full time. And while purists compared him unfavourably with his more stylish twin, it is Steve Waugh who has emerged, in both Tests and one dayers, as the solid backbone around whom his flamboyant team-mates perform.
Rock solid, immensenly competitive, Waugh senior has time and again pulled his side out of holes they found themselves in. And done it, too, with none of the flash and hype that surrounds the more high-profile performers in the side.
For Steve, life is not all cricket. Fond of reading and writing, he has for some years now produced, without fail, a comprehensive tour diary after every outing of the side. Diaries that are packed not only with an insider's look at the cricketing happenings, but also insights into the life and times of the countries he visits. His latest trip, to India, has provided him material for his first full-fledged non-cricketing work -- to wit, a book on Calcutta he plans to start work on once he is back home.
Anant Gaundalkar caught up with the Australian captain in Sharjah. Excerpts from an interview:
So how do you rate Australia's tour of India?
Well, as it turned out, in both Tests and one dayers, we ended up having the last laugh over India, by virtue of those crucial victories. True, we did not win the Test series, but for us the Bangalore win in the third Test was crucial since it was achieved when India were going great
guns.
The Test results don't bother me, I was not in charge of the squad. I am here now to play the one-dayers. In India, we had two bad days against India in the league stage, but then
recovered splendidly to notch up that important win in the final. That helped us to win the series, and winning a one day series is an achievement by any yardstick. It really does not matter if we had bad days earlier -- when you take part in a tournament, you do so to win. And we won -- so I don't think you can call ours a bad performance.
Much has been written about conditions in India. Would you care to comment?
At the outset I must say that India has
so many good centres which can host day-night one-day matches,
with the Eden Gardens in Calcutta being straight out of the top drawer. Therefore I was surprised that none of the one-dayers were
played under floodlights. But that may be part of a policy of the Indian
cricket board to allocate matches to smaller centres. Having said that, I must add that during hot and humid conditions, it is always advisable
to play under lights so that players can conserve their energy, especially
in such a tightly packed itinerary where one travels from one
city to other almost every day. The organisers, I feel, must keep this in mind when deciding future tours.
Based on the Indian experience, what do you think of your prospects in the Coca-Cola Cup?
Like I said, whatever happened in India in the Tests doesn't
concern me as I was not in charge of those games. My job is the one-dayers. And even here, Sharjah has no connection with events in India. We won the World Series tournament
against South Africa after losing the first final, and
then emerging victorious in the next two. Similarly, we bagged
the tourney in India after coming from behind. And we hope to go flat out in the Coca-Cola Cup here, try to complete a hat-trick. That would be a right note
to end what has been a hectic season.
Do you find the conditions in Sharjah differing considerably from those in India?
It was very hot and humid in India. Comparatively,
the conditions here are far better. It is as hot, maybe hotter, but the matches are being played under
floodlights in Sharjah, which will further help players to restore
their energy. The Indian Board should learn from this experience, I think.
You are on record as saying that this year is actually a build-up to the big one. So how are preparations for the World Cup going?
We have in fact devised a strategy for the championship -- after all, we haven't won the Cup for ten long years and it is about time we got it in our hands again. We have different teams and captains for the two kinds of cricket, and are focussing on the horses-for-courses policy, picking players who suit the playing conditions we are going to encounter and the type of game we are going to be playing. I would say overall, yeah, we are quite on course.
What is your rating of the idea of different Tests and one day teams?
It is not like it is carved in stone, that you have to have entirely different sides. Every country has players capable of handling the various demands of both forms, but again, every country also has players who are at their best in one or the other form of the game. Like, India has Robin Singh and Ajay Jadeja for one-day
internationals, similarly we have Tom Moody and Gilchrist, the Windies have Phil Simmons, England has the Hollioakes, to name a few instances. I don't find anything wrong if a particular
country calls for the best resources available in that particular
form of the game, to form a winning side.
The same arguments hold good for the skipper's selection, England and Australia for instance have different captains, and that is fair enough. What we need to keep in mind is that limited overs internationals are an evolving game form, unlike Tests, strategies and tactics are being thought out and experimented with all the time, this is merely one more such experiment and doesn't need the intense media focus and arguments.
You mentioned earlier that you were getting to the end of a hectic season -- what are your views about the proliferation of Tests and ODIs recently?
It is true that Tests and ODIs have proliferated out of all reasonable proportion over the last two, three years. It has come to a stage where someone, somewhere, is playing an international game every day. So much so that today, there are no definite seasons, even, they have begun to overlap.
I remember how during the months of June, July, and August, cricket was
restricted only to England, which has its summer then. Nowadays that is not the case, the Asian sub-continent has taken a lead role during these months and that has helped increase the number of games being played, created a situation where cricket is being played all 12 months of the year.
The main result of this, I think, is that more and more players are now becoming
victims of injuries. Only the fittest can sustain the
pressure of year-long international cricket. And increasingly, there is no time to keep yourself fit, since you are playing one day and travelling the next with no down time.
I think the governing
body, the International Cricket Council, must intervene and chalk
out a detailed plan, a strategy to curb excessive cricket before it goes totally out of hand. This will help the players.
Also, I believe the
respective cricketing boards should also finalise their various
tournaments, these Independence Cups and Golden Jubilees and such,
well in advance, so that players can figure out some kind of schedule for themselves. This way, there is no rest, no time to be with your families, and it is all adding to the load.
The Rediff Cricket Interviews
|