Giving grit a good name
| The lasting memory of Steve Waugh will be a sharp contrast to this picture. It will always be of a man rising to a challenge and meeting it head on, even if it meant taking painful blows on the body, as he did from some of the fastest bowlers the game has seen. |
| Waugh's playing career coincided with one of the most dynamic periods of world cricket. It began when the West Indies were the undisputed rulers and Australia in tatters, saw through Australia's ascendancy to the top, and ended with Australia still the best team, but showing a few chinks. |
| There can be few men better suited to capturing the story of this period. Waugh was part of the Australian team that Alan Border built from scratch into a strong side. He was in the team that beat the West Indies in the West Indies in 1995""the series is widely accepted as the watershed when the world order began to change in favour of Australia. Waugh's batsmanship played a key role in making that series the watershed it is. |
| What's more, Waugh, who says he had extra sensory perceptions about twin brother Mark (he foresaw one of his dismissals), perhaps had an inkling that someday people will lap up whatever he wrote. So, he kept meticulous tour diaries. |
| The result of this combination is a book that is not only not ghost written, but also an open, frank and honest insight into modern cricket's most interesting mind, one that traversed the range from the "art of mental disintegration" to Udayan, the home for leprosy-affected children in Kolkata. |
| For instance, Waugh admits to using foul language on the pitch, that too against Curtley Ambrose, someone he describes as "the supreme fast bowling machine". |
| His description of the Windies' decline, beginning with that 1995 series, is faultless. Sample this: "Often the signals are subtle, and sometimes you can argue about what they really mean, but for me seeing the fearless Richie Richardson coming out to bat in the helmet for the first time in his career during the second Test, in Antigua, was an insight into his decaying technique and an omen that change was in the wind." |
| It is also the story of a man who battled the burden of expectations, failure, self doubt, and the truth that he was not the most talented. (Mark is universally acknowledged as being the more talented). |
| He was hailed as the next Bradman before his international debut. Some time later, he found himself out of the Australian team, making way for Mark, who made an instant impact. And then the long wait for the first Test century. |
| It is the story of a man who once walked to the pitch with the score reading three down for 14 and a hostile Trinidad crowd chanting, "Tief! Tief!". The 'thief' tag was a reference to a controversial catch taken earlier in the series. |
| Once that walk was over, Waugh "scraped, slogged, scampered and stroked" his way to 63 not out in a team total of 128""perhaps the finest non-century innings ever. |
| Somewhere as you read on, you can't help but start feeling "If he can, so can I." That is perhaps the most uplifting aspect of the book. It is written by a man who, through design, intent and deliberation, acquired greatness. |
| Rahul Dravid, in his foreword, captures the Waugh persona succinctly: "I'll remember him because he gave grit a good name... He proved that it is not only the pretty player who can capture the imagination but also the tough and determined." |
| Dravid's foreword also provides one of the ironies in the book. Sourav Ganguly, the man Dravid worked closely with as vice-captain, and eventually replaced at the helm, is described by Waugh as elitist, feisty and petulant"""a bloke who thought the world revolves around him". |
| OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY |
| Steve Waugh Penguin Viking Price: Rs 895; Pages: xxii + 816 |