Cricket's Waugh in fitting finale
By Grant Holloway
CNN
 |
Steve Waugh playing in his final test match at the SCG.
Story Tools
| WAUGH FILES |
Test debut v India, Melbourne, December 1985, aged 20.
Has been captain since 1999.
Test match appearances: 168 (record).
Runs: 10,807 with average of 50.98.
Wickets: 92 at 37.38.
Second highest run-scorer of all time behind Australia's Allan Border (11,174).
Has scored 32 Test centuries, behind only India's Sunil Gavaskar (34).
Most successful Test captain in history with 41 victories from 56 Tests and a success rate of 73.21 per cent.
|
|
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Long-serving Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh is finally hanging up his battered but beloved "baggy green" cap.
Waugh retired from international cricket Tuesday in his hometown Sydney at the close of an epic five-day Test battle with India, helping his side to a battling draw.
While Waugh fell agonizingly short of a fairytale end to his career -- scoring 80 runs -- he left the field to a standing ovation that included Prime Minister John Howard -- in his final appearance for Australia. (Full story)
Nicknamed "Tugga" -- as in "tug of war" -- the Australian captain's fierce patriotism has been typified by his devotion to the baggy green cap awarded to Test players upon debut.
Waugh's cap has been worn proudly in every international Test match for the past 18 years, and is looking more than a little worse for wear. But like it's owner, the cap has become an object of living legend.
The historic Sydney Cricket Ground has been at capacity, or near to it, for the past five days as cricket fans pour through the turnstiles to pay tribute to one of the game's true greats.
Renowned for his never-say-die attitude and hard-nosed approach to the game, Waugh fittingly faced an uphill final-day battle to rescue the match from a gutsy and talent-laden Indian team.
The Sydney Test makes it Waugh's 168th Test -- a world record -- and his 57th at the helm of the Australian national side.
Since his debut in 1985, the 38-year-old Waugh has scored nearly 11,000 Test runs -- second only in total to India's Sunil Gavaskar -- at an average of over 50 runs per innings.
But impressive as those records are, it is the gritty New South Welshman's reign as Australian captain that is without peer.
Regardless of the final test outcome, Waugh has presided over arguably the world's strongest and most successful national cricket side in the past 50 years.
He is the most successful Test captain in history with 41 victories from 56 Tests before today's result -- an unmatched success rate of 73.21 per cent.
Typically stoic, Waugh said before the final match that he felt "no real sadness" about his retirement.
"I don't feel it's a sad occasion," he told reporters.
"I've been lucky to have played a lot of matches. I've had great experiences around the world, played against great players, met a lot of fantastic people, seen a lot of different cultures.
"There's nothing to be sad about, I've definitely been fortunate."
Fortunate, too, are the millions of cricket fans world-wide who have had the pleasure to witness first hand one of the game's most remarkable and enduring talents. (Tributes flow)
Waugh's replacement as Test captain will be prolific batsman Ricky Ponting.
Waugh's twin brother Mark, who also had a long and distinguished cricketing career in the same teams as Steve, retired from international cricket in 2002 year after being dropped from the national squad.
