Thursday, October 3, 2002
Pakistan v Australia, 1st Test, 2002 And so the great winter break ends here. For most of Australia's Test players it has been time well spent. Ricky Ponting got married and finally, at the age of 27, secured his driver's licence. Justin Langer learned how to box, watched a lot of footy and wrote a book. Adam Gilchrist chilled out with his wife and newborn son at their Margaret River holiday home. Shane Warne shed so many kilos he is now the hot favourite to spearhead Australia's national campaign against child obesity. So much time, so much to do besides think about cricket.

For Mark Waugh the last six months have been less blissful. He has watched Australia's one-day tyros strut their stuff from the faraway galaxy of the commentary box; that must have been painful. He has had a tiresomely sycophantic book written about him; that must have been frustrating. And he has crossed a couple of continents and endured more than a hundred interviews trying to promote the darn thing; that, for a bloke who hates discussing himself, must have nearly killed him.

All the while he will have been in no doubt that after 14 years, 369 matches and 16,449 international runs it all comes down to this. If he does not make runs, and bundles of them, in the first Test at Colombo he may not be around for the next one. If he does not make runs in the series we will surely never see him under a green helmet again.

The past couple of weeks were probably the worst of all. For if the critics turned on Waugh long ago, then this might just have been the week that public sentiment swung against him too. A friend captured the national mood when he rang midweek and announced: "That's it, Junior's got to go this time."

He was responding, of course, to that screaming headline of a fortnight ago - "Waugh bored with cricket" - and he was not impressed. In their full context Waugh's comments were not as bad as they first sounded. A British journalist, during the course of a lengthy interview, asked Waugh about his future. Waugh replied that he had no plans to become a coach because he was "getting semi-bored with cricket", before adding: "I'm not bored with playing, it's more the watching, the media, the interviews."

Harmless enough. He has since claimed his words were "misconstrued" and he was the victim of a "diabolical piece of journalism". Again. But he hasn't talked himself out of this one. To many observers, already alarmed by Waugh's lack of runs, his lack of enthusiasm grated. It made him sound ungrateful. Undeserving. Worse still, unAustralian. Doesn't he realise that grown men would kill to wear the baggy green? If it means nothing to him, then there are plenty of others ready to take his place.

Except that there aren't really. Australia's batting cupboard is hardly bare but nor is it overflowing. It would be nice to give Darren Lehmann a prolonged run before he gets much older. Michael Clarke, the young New South Welshman, looks an astoundingly classy prospect. Simon Katich is surely too good to still be playing domestic cricket. Shane Watson's one-day career has begun as promisingly as anyone could realistically have hoped. None of them, however, are quite mounting irresistible cases.

So what does Waugh need to do to hold them off? How many runs are enough? It's hard to say. When Australia toured Sri Lanka a decade ago Dean Jones reeled off 57, 77, 100 not out, 11 and 21 in consecutive innings. He never played again. For Waugh, as with Jones, it will not simply be a case of how many but how he bats. He must be fluent yet tight. He must show a splash of dash without doing anything rash. And he must have luck on his side. One dodgy lbw decision, one ill-fated run-out, one fluky catch and there may be no tomorrow.

At the opposite end of the breakfast table, brother Steve looks safe for now. Forget all the hype about the end being nigh. This is, lest we forget, the man who led his country to 16 straight victories. His immediate rival Ricky Ponting shows plenty of promise but, despite that belated breakthrough with his driver's licence, is still wearing his L-plates as a captain. Steve will retain his place and depart at a time of his choosing - after the Ashes seems an opportune moment - so long as Australia win well against Pakistan.

And win well they should. Yes, Australia have lost five of their last six series on the subcontinent. Yes, this Pakistan team - despite their five-star casualty list - is bubbling with brillance. A bowling attack of Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Abdur Razzaq, Saqlain Mushtaq and Danish Kaneria is enough to worry any side. But the Australians, fully rested and raring to go, are not any side.

A couple of days ago Steve did something highly unWaughlike. He admitted he and his fellow batsmen were none too flash against spin bowling. The Indians, he noted, tended to play from well back. The Australians preferred to come well forward. Perhaps, he suggested, the Indians had the right idea all along.

What? Steve Waugh contemplating his own frailty? He must be feeling confident.

Chris Ryan is a former managing editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly and a former Darwin correspondent of the Melbourne Age.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd