Waugh likes a gambol (8 May 1999)

8 May 1999

Waugh likes a gambol

Sue Mott

Mark Waugh plays like a cavalier and speaks like a Roundhead with his helmet on backwards. He hates talking into microphones. It practically took grappling hooks and handcuffs to bind him to a bench in the shadow of Cardiff Castle and ask him about his batting and his betting, the two central themes of his existence.

Everyone else was chatting happily. Mere yards away his twin and Australia cricket captain, Steve, was charming the audience in a green and yellow striped blazer that would have brought no shame to Henley. Even Shane Warne, who rarely reveals his innermost thoughts, especially about his outermost waistline, was looking a camera from Welsh television in the face. Admittedly, the outcome wasn't entirely blip-free.

Interviewer: How does it feel to be back over here?

Warne: Oh, I'm always happy to be back in England.

Interviewer: (Pause.) Um. This is Wales, actually, Shane.

Warne: Oh, yeah, well. . .

Everywhere you looked, there was communication going on to herald the dawn of the cricket World Cup, for which Australia are one of the favourites. Even a passing peacock obligingly squawked for the soundtracks. Meanwhile, M E Waugh, possibly the most beautiful batsman in the world, was zipped up in his tracksuit and reluctance. "I don't want to do this," he said, behind green-framed sunglasses. (It wasn't sunny.)

He is a doer not a sayer. His 138 against England on his Test debut in Adelaide 1990-91 announced a classical stylist who composed innings like Mozart wrote symphonies, full of improvisations, precision, fluidity and laced with tremendous gusts of energy. He hit a six against New Zealand in 1997 which landed on the roof of the five-tier stand at Perth 130 yards away from the crease, the sporting equivalent of a clash of cymbals.

But for all the eloquence of his 21,899 first-class runs, including 16 centuries in 90 Test matches, the man himself is shy of publicity. Much of this might stem from the cash-for-weather-reports scandal last Christmas when it was revealed that he and Shane Warne had once been paid 11,000 Australian dollars for providing background information to a Bombay bookmaker.

"I don't want to talk about that," he said, manning the defences like Geoffrey Boycott at the crease, but the very fact that he was still sitting there, subjecting himself to this torture, made it possible to ask the question about the health or otherwise of cricket's international reputation. Is it corrupt?

"Well, I think our sport's clean. I know that every Australian game I've played in is clean. Played 100 per cent to win the game. I can only speak for Australia but as far as I'm concerned, it's clean."

Personally, he was plainly made to suffer for his sins, which the Australian Cricket Board thought so minor that they neglected to mention it for four years. And so, a man who had never enjoyed opening up, except his bat to the ball down the leg side, became even more jealous of his silence. It seems a waste. Cajoled and prodded, he can offer some straight-talking insights, not least on the subject of the Australian cricket captain to whom he is related.

"He does boss me around a bit more than he used to," Mark said of Steve, who is four minutes older. "That's pretty rotten. Apart from that, I don't see any problems with my brother as captain."

Everyone remarks on the differences between them. They never took the Tweedledee/dum route through life together. Steve has always seemed fettered to duty and discipline in his batting, Mark to apparent joy and ease. The younger twin disputes this, however. "I think about my game more than people give me credit for. I don't give my wicket away. I'm trying as hard as everyone else. Some look more serious than others, but I can assure you that inside I'm trying 100 per cent.

"Oh yeah, I know I look laid-back. Underneath, I'm not, but externally, yeah. I try and enjoy my cricket. I think Steven does as well. They say he doesn't smile on the field but not everybody smiles when he goes to work."

I noticed Mark wasn't exactly smiling now. "Is that it?" he said, growing restive, to the photographer (an Australian, as it happens, who is surely the only person in Britain to own a copy of Waugh Declared, published in 1992, which features a picture of Mark, aged about five, wearing his mother's housecoat and carrying a handbag. I decided not to mention this).

This frivolous side to him - previewed in his cross-dressing toddlerhood - is possibly demonstrated in his passion for punting and, as a thank-you for his time, I offered him a tip for the 3.55 at Chepstow. Prancing Blade - it sounded appropriate, and what is more, came second at 8-1. I hope he remembered.

Cricketers are not allowed to bet on their own matches. Waugh insists he never does but he is fairly apt to bet on anything else. "Bet you Brian Lara wouldn't talk to you either," he said at one stage. "How much?" I replied. But despite the entire Australian team being sponsored by Emirates for the World Cup, he did not take up the wager. (Thankfully, because he was quite right about Lara.)

Time permitting, his social calendar for the next few weeks in England will consist of: horses and golf. "You've seen one castle, you've seen them all," he opined. "I'm not much of a one for sightseeing."

I remembered another horse I'd picked out for him. This one was at Market Rasen, called Gambolling, with a nice ironic play on words. "Yeah, well. It's probably got me into trouble more than Steve," he said of both meanings in our minds.

Most recently, they had been in equal trouble in the West Indies when the one-day series ended in dangerous chaos in Barbados after a disputed run-out and serious crowd riots. The angry West Indian supporters forced the Sherwin Campbell run-out decision to be reversed and Waugh was among those troubled by the implications.

"The worst thing was they changed the course of the game. That sets a precedent. If a crowd doesn't like what's happening or a team is losing, they can run on the pitch, have a riot and maybe call the game off. It's happened now. So it can happen again, I guess. But at the time, we didn't have a choice, I don't think.

"It's hard to believe sport has got that bad. People are going to get hurt if something's not done. I don't know what the answer is. Put up barbed-wire fences? But when it gets to the crowd throwing bottles at you when you're on the field and running on the pitch, knocking players over. . .

"Steven got hit, he got whiplashed by some guy running on. I mean, Monica Seles got stabbed in tennis. How easy would it be for someone to do something to you, with all those people running on to the field? They're out of control these people. A lot of them had been drinking all day. I didn't get hit by a bottle but there were a number of near misses. In the end, people were smashing bottles and throwing them."

England, he thinks, will be a haven of good behaviour by comparison. "I think England have got the best-behaved cricket crowds in the world. Touch wood."

Whether this is because of innate good manners or the inertia that can stem from watching the England cricket team collapse, he would not say. He once did say something about the England team and received a hiding for it. The Daily Mirror, among others, seized on his opinion that "they just have not got that toughness you need to win Test matches consistently" - which was no more than the plain truth - and thoughtfully added the headline: England are a bunch of WIMPS, and we had the usual storm in a beer glass.

This time, he is more circumspect. "Through sheer force of numbers, there are bound to be players in county cricket who just aren't good enough but I don't really understand why England don't win more matches. I think you've got potential to win games but they play well for two or three days then, when the pressure's on, they're lacking self-belief.

"The only way to change that is by winning a few games. I thought they would after they played well against South Africa, then they came to Australia and were disappointing."

I offered him a conundrum. Which of the England team would walk into the Australian side? "Um," he said. "That's a bit hard to say. I think Darren Gough would be in the team. England have got a lot of good players. On paper, there's not a huge difference between us. Apart from Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Steven, who are probably the top three in the world in their categories."

What he seems to be too polite or battle-scarred to say is that England, apart from attitude, mental toughness and personnel are as good as Australia.

His own mental steel he attributes to the competitive nature of his upbringing. "There were four boys in our family growing up, so it was a bit of a race for everything. You had to eat fast if you wanted seconds. We always played together in the backyard - cricket, tennis, golf - and we always liked to beat each other."

The Waugh boys had sport in their genes. Their father, Roger, played tennis with Tony Roche. Their mother, Beverley, recently won the Australian squash championships for her age group. Obviously, Dean and Danny, the two younger brothers, are a disgrace to the family for failing thus far to make the Australian cricket team.

"Look, there's only been 360-something guys ever played cricket for Australia. So to have four from one family. . .I don't know what the odds would be. Pretty high."

As pretty high as his stock as a match-winner. He has won Tests with picturesque centuries (139 against the West Indies in 1991 and 116 against South Africa in 1997 surface as examples), he has taken the wickets of Lara and Tendulkar with his off-spin ("I could be Australia's secret weapon") and he shared a world-record stand of 464 with his brother for New South Wales against Western Australia - probably because neither dared being the first one out.

Whether he wins his wager is another matter. He has bet Shane Warne 1,000 Australian dollars that McGrath will never score a first-class fifty. It was with mixed feelings then that he watched the bowler amass 39 against the West Indies pace attack in the recent Test series. "I was a bit worried," he admitted. Now Warne is giving the bowler extra net practice.

"Wha. . .," I said. But it was too late. That was my lot. He had prised himself free of his bonds and was racing to freedom, perhaps paying his respects to Mr William Hill on the way.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)