A heart warming outing for Steve Waugh

It was a day with a difference for the captain of the Australian team Steve Waugh. For once, he did not have to get up early, to prepare himself for one of the innumerable matches that dominate the life of a cricketer these days. He did play a match for 10 minutes, but that was with the Leprosy affected young residents of Udayan. A home that cares for young kids with the disease with Waugh as its benefactor.

Waugh arrived in Calcutta from Johannesburg, via Singapore at exactly seven in the evening on Wednesday. He proceeded straight from the Airport to the Taj Bengal Hotel to auction cricket memoribilia to raise funds for Udayan. And on Thursday, he was at the home itself, to inaugurate, `Nivedita'another separate girls'wing of Udayan. In between, he talked about cricket, but his entire concentration was on the young kids who have probably changed the whole meaning of his life. He also batted and bowled a bit with the kids who lovingly called him Steveda (Da in Bengali means elder brother)

``I am sorry that I am here without my family, but then you are all a part of my family,'' said Waugh to the 100-odd inhabitants of Udayan, who had prepared themselves from the wee hours of Thursday morning. Waugh himself had started for the 40 kilometre journey from Calcutta to Udayan at around six in the morning. Amidst flowers and roses and chanting of prayer songs, Waugh inaugurated Nivedita. And with journalists around, he had to revert to the topic of cricket and as usual the match fixing scandal. Even without any prompting, Waugh showed why he is considered to be an elder statesman of the game today. Talking about the recent controversy, he said, ``the recent developments have been very bad for the game. But then every one is humane and human beings are bound to make mistakes. It does not happen with the cricketers only as people are trying to point out. Hansie Cronje has made a mistake as a human being. I have full support towards him at this particular moment. However, it will be tough for me to judge his actions. As a fellow human being, I cannot do that.''

Even though Waugh stated, that he supported Cronje as a human being, his thoughts were very clear as far as cleaning up of the game was concerned. ``The administrators will have to play a very important role and take hard decisions against those involved in the criminal act of defacing the game,'' said Waugh. He also added, ``as cricketers it is our responsibility to once more take the game to the back pages of the newspapers. At the moment, cricket, for wrong reasons, is occupying the front pages.''

Waugh was also not ready to believe that most of the cricketers have been involved in betting and match fixing. ``A small few are bringing a bad name to the committed many,'' was the language that he had for those critics. When asked whether exemplary punishment should have been meted out to Mark Waugh and Shane Warne, the Australian captain was quick to point out, ``they have already been fined. Moreover, they did not fix a game. Instead, they passed information about the pitch and the weather. They should not have done that but then that is already a closed chapter.''

Talking about South Africa's recent performance against Australia, Waugh said, ``they were a very determined lot. It seemed that they wanted to establish their own credentials to the South African spectators.''

Earlier at an auction at Hotel Taj Bengal on Wednesday night, Waugh raised close to Rs 21 lakh for the new girls'hostel. He went round from table to table amongst some of Calcutta's top most socialities auctioning Shane Warne's T-shirt with the number 23 on its back. It fetched Rs 23,000. Similarly a ball autographed by Warne was picked up for Rs 22,000. However, two cricket bats brought the maximum amount to the fund. The first was an autographed bat by the members of the World Cup winning Australian squad which was sold for Rs 2,50,000 and then another bat having the signatures of 42 players from India, Australia and Pakistan which went for Rs 3,25,000.

Speaking on the occasion, Waugh said, ``there has been a series of events happening in the world of cricket for the last two weeks. However, I would like to associate myself with this noble cause at this moment. This entire venture has changed my life. I never feel away from my family if I am with these children and trying to do something for their cause.''