Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. The jury is still out on who uttered those famous words. Most popular accounts suggest that it was Vince Lombardi, coach of the small-town Green Bay Packers who dominated American football in the 1960s. There are those that beg to differ, saying that it was another legendary football coach, Knute Rockne. It really doesn't matter. The sad thing is that there aren't enough sportspeople out there prepared to live and die by the famous dictum. Words like honourable and heroic are frequently bandied about to describe draws. In rare cases, they may be justified (Salamanca scrapping a draw against Real Madrid, an unknown grandmaster nullifying Garry Kasparov). But more often than not, the words are just abused.

It's a real pity that Lombardi never met Steve Waugh. Try telling Waugh that a draw is an honourable option. If it had been someone else in Waugh's shoes, the first Test against New Zealand at the Gabba would have petered out into a miserable, boring draw - just the sort of result that Test cricket needs like a .38 calibre bullet in the head. Instead, thanks to Waugh's initiative and New Zealand's courageous run-chase, we got a real nail-biter, one of those Tests that could have produced any of three results till the final over.

You can argue all you like about the relative merits of Waugh's side and Clive Lloyd's West Indians of the early 1980s. Comparisons are odious but in my eyes, it's a no-brainer. For all their talent - and in that department, they were probably slightly better endowed than this Australian team - the West Indies didn't go at full-throttle often enough.

After some hairy early results (most notably a 5-1 drubbing in Australia in 1975-76) Lloyd soon got his captaincy together. Starting with the scorching English summer of 1976 - when they made Tony Greig's team grovel - Lloyd captained the West Indies 57 times. He won 30 of those Tests but drew as many as 23.

The apologists will say that the approach to Test cricket was very different then, that one-day cricket has irrevocably changed the way we view the five-day game. Sorry, I don't buy that. With the players at their disposal, the West Indies should have won more, drawn less. Too often, they let things drift instead of going for the throat.

In contrast, Waugh's boys are baggy-green mean-machines, the cricket equivalent of a starved Doberman. In his last 21 Tests, Waugh had captained Australia to 19 wins and just two defeats. And that antipathy to the D-word was evident again today as he went for win No. 20. The spirited response from New Zealand denied him, and could indeed have cost him but for Glenn McGrath's steely nerve. Waugh though is unlikely to lose sleep over that. For the old gunslingers like Billy the Kid, the bullet that whizzed past their ears was as much of a nuisance as a hovering fly. If it don't hit, why worry?

Rest assured there won't be any let-up in intensity from Australia as the series moves to Hobart in ten days' time. Waugh knows that there's no such thing as an honourable draw. When you're fortunate enough to call on the services of McGrath, Warne, Gillespie, Lee, Ponting, Marytn, your brother and yourself, you know that anything less than a win is unacceptable.

It would be different if there were teams out there that could really push these Australians on a consistent basis. But as long as they continue to be streets - and a couple of alleys - ahead of all opposition, Waugh knows it's his duty to go the Lombardi/Rockne way and eschew the D-option. Stephen Fleming, watch your throat...Tasmania could be scary.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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