{"id":51183,"date":"2020-10-12T14:52:25","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T14:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=51183"},"modified":"2021-12-27T05:01:14","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T05:01:14","slug":"what-waugh-saw-and-how-it-changed-him-by-greg-bearup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/what-waugh-saw-and-how-it-changed-him-by-greg-bearup\/","title":{"rendered":"What Waugh saw, and how it changed him – By GREG BEARUP"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Waugh saw, and how it changed him –\u00a0By\u00a0GREG BEARUP<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/h1>\n

Once labeled \u2018Australia\u2019s most \u00adselfish cricketer\u2019, Steve Waugh reveals the series of shocking encounters that led him to ditch the sport for good.<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

\"Nic<\/p>\n

Former cricketer Steve Waugh Pic : Nic Walker<\/span><\/p>\n

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  • From\u00a0The Weekend Australian Magazine<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The office of the Steve Waugh Foundation is up the stairs and down the back of a block of shops on the outskirts of Cronulla\u2019s CBD in Sydney\u2019s south. The office, like the bloke, is devoid of frou-frou. It exists to get the job done and each year it distributes more than a million dollars to help kids with rare diseases. And then in walks Steve Waugh with his famous pout and his thousand-yard stare \u2013 the man who led one of the most dominant teams in the long history of Test cricket. Remember those gratifying years when humiliation of the Poms was an annual ritual, like raking up and burning leaves each autumn? \u201cWe\u2019re not here to win friends, mate,\u201d he once said, summing up the attitude of the team under his reign.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

    Steve Waugh was a towering figure in world cricket for almost two decades and then\u00a0he largely disappeared from the game when he retired in 2004. He never joined the conga-line-of-captains \u2013 Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry, the Chappell brothers, Alan Border, Mark Taylor, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke \u2013 who segued into the commentary box. He was never tempted to coach or select. \u201cI guess I just wanted to create some new memories in my life,\u201d Waugh says of his decision to forge his own path away from cricket, \u201crather than just reliving the past.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

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    He hasn\u2019t been idle. At one point he starts \u00adflicking through a book on the table that highlights the work of his foundation. These are some of those new memories he\u2019s been creating: hard-fought battles, glorious innings, utterly heartbreaking and devastating defeats, and, of course, some rubbish decisions from the umpire. \u201cThat\u2019s Renee,\u201d he says, pointing to a small person with an oxygen tube in her nose. \u201cWe catch up every few weeks. She has geleophysic dysplasia, a rare form of dwarfism. She\u2019s our ambassador and has been with us since the start\u2026 This guy here is Liam. He\u2019s an amazing kid. He was never supposed to speak and last year he interviewed me in front of his whole school, in front of 900 kids! This little one here is Alyssa \u2013 my wife and I cuddled up with Alyssa the night before she passed away\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Desert<\/p>\n

    Desert cricket in India. Picture: Steve Waugh<\/span><\/p>\n

    Waugh\u2019s life may have taken a very different route; he may have ended up in the cotton wool of the commentary box if not for an early morning rickshaw ride through the streets of \u00adCalcutta (now Kolkata) in 1996. He once revealed in an interview that the person he\u2019d most like to meet was Mother Teresa. News Corp cricket writer Robert Craddock tucked this \u00adinformation away and when the team and its entourage arrived in \u00adCalcutta for the 1996 World Cup game, Craddock made some calls. \u201cWe entered a room that reminded me of an old school classroom, with wooden shutters running horizontally,\u201d Waugh wrote in his biography\u00a0Out of My Comfort Zone. \u201cThe floor space was almost totally taken up by tightly bunched sisters, all clad in pure white cloth with dashes of blue.\u201d And then the tiny Mother Teresa appeared \u2013 he almost tripped over her \u2013 and they were introduced for a few moments of chit-chat. \u201cHer face was wrinkled and weathered, yet soft and welcoming and she radiated a tremendous inner strength and sense of compassion.\u201d\u00a0Mother Teresa handed Steve Waugh her business card: \u201cThe fruit of silence is prayer,\u201d it said. \u201cThe fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Waugh is not a religious man but in that brief time in Mother Teresa\u2019s Home for the Dying he was inspired by this woman who had devoted her life to others. \u201cFrom that moment on I thought if I ever get the opportunity I should do something to emulate her work,\u201d he says. Two years later, when he next played in Calcutta, a note was slipped under the door of his hotel room asking him to visit a school on the outskirts of the city, a home for children whose parents suffered from leprosy. The fruit of love for Steve Waugh would become service.\u00a0India would spark his awakening.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    The \u2018Big Tree\u2019 ground off the Yamuna Expressway near Vrindavan, Utta Pradesh. Picture: Steve Waugh from the book Spirit of Cricket: India<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cSteve was always different from the other\u00a0\u00adcricketers,\u201d says Trent Parke. \u201cHe was interested in everything outside of cricket. He wanted to learn about the culture and the people. He had a \u00adpassion for photography. He was interested in the world.\u201d Parke had been a gifted junior cricketer, a spin bowler selected by the Australian Cricket Academy with ambitions to play for his country. His main rival, however, was a budding Shane Warne and so he ditched cricket to pursue his other obsession, photography.<\/span><\/p>\n

    In 1996, Parke was a young and intense \u00adphotographer on tour with the Australian cricket team. On days off from cricket Steve Waugh would often tag along behind Parke as the pair meandered through the streets of India with their cameras, absorbing and documenting the mayhem. \u201cHe had a curiosity,\u201d says Parke. \u201cHe\u2019d be constantly saying, \u2018Why are you doing this\u2019 and \u2018What makes that a better picture than this?\u2019\u201d Parke, who was with Waugh the day he met Mother Teresa, would go on to become one of our most celebrated photographers, the first Australian invited into the prestigious Magnum photo agency. And Waugh, well, he\u2019d score 10,000 Test runs.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Last year, Parke got a phone call out of the blue from the former captain. Waugh had an idea. He wanted to go back and photograph cricket in India in all its guises for a book,\u00a0The Spirit of Cricket \u2013 India. And he wanted Parke to accompany him, to be his photo coach. It\u2019s a bit like doing a sketch tour of Europe and having Ben Quilty peering over your shoulder, offering tips. \u201cI had no interest whatsoever,\u201d says Parke. \u201cNone\u2026 but then Steve can be very persuasive.\u201d And so, in January this year, Parke found himself on one of the weirdest assignments of his life.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Local cricket and water vendor at Azad Maidan, Mumbai. Picture: Steve Waugh<\/span><\/p>\n

    Waugh first went to India in 1986 under the captaincy of Alan Border. He played in the famous tied Test in Madras, where the late Dean Jones defied the stifling heat and a dodgy stomach to grind out an epic double century. Since then Waugh\u2019s been back \u201cprobably 60 times for sport, business and philanthropy\u201d.\u00a0He realised pretty quickly that his working-class upbringing in \u00adSydney had been incredibly privileged. The team arrived in Bombay (Mumbai) and ever since that first bus ride from the airport to the hotel \u2013 with the smells, the beggars tapping at the windows, the buffalo in the streets, \u201cthe massive bombardment of the senses\u201d \u2013 he\u2019s been captivated by India.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The feeling is mutual. Steve Waugh is a revered figure on the subcontinent.\u00a0\u201cThere is no \u00adAustralian who is better known in India and better respected and loved in India,\u201d\u00a0says Darshak Mehta, an influential Indian-Australian businessman who is chair of the Chappell Foundation. \u201cIn India there is this fascination with this man \u2013 he was captain of \u00adAustralia, a great batsman \u2013 who was willing to mingle in the streets. He was not afraid to meet the sufferers of leprosy\u2026 he is deeply in love with the country and that is reciprocated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Waugh tells me that for years he\u2019s wanted to go back and do a proper photographic tour. \u201cI wanted to capture through the lens what cricket means in India,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause it is a religion over there. I wanted to capture not just the players but the people around the game and how Indians are so fanatical about the game.\u201d And he wanted to produce a beautiful book with stunning photographs, so he took along Trent Parke. \u201cI wanted to surprise people with the quality of my photographs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Bat and ball factory, Meerut. Picture: Steve Waugh<\/span><\/p>\n

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    He approached the project with the same determination he would a Test series \u2013 this was no lads-on-the-piss tour. It was intense. Early this year the pair travelled to nine cities in 17 days, \u00adtaking photographs from first light until dark, in the slums, on the beaches. They had an audience with Sachin Tendulkar. They documented women cricketers, disabled cricketers and the monks of the Himalayas, tearing in like Thommo on an uneven pitch. \u201cWe were getting four or five hours\u2019 sleep and then we\u2019d be up on a flight or a bus to the next place,\u201d Parke says. Waugh, he adds, was always remarkably calm, possessing a wry sense of humour. There were times when they\u2019d be swamped by hundreds of fans. \u201cI was struck by how incredibly cool he is in those situations.\u201d Another time they were being driven at breakneck speed through Indian traffic on a freeway. \u201cI remember holding onto the Jesus \u00adhandle being terrified,\u201d says Parke. \u201cSteve was \u00adsitting in the front seat calmly chatting away to the driver and making jokes.\u201d Whenever he\u2019d swerve between lanes to overtake, Waugh would say: \u201cLook out, he\u2019s off for another quick single.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    All the while, Waugh was picking Parke\u2019s brain. \u201cPhotography is about emotion and anticipation,\u201d the photographer explained to the cricket legend. \u201cIt is about putting yourself in a place before a photo happens.\u201d Like setting a field, \u00adforecasting where a batsman will sky a ball. \u201cIt was actually quite amazing watching him,\u201d Parke says of his pupil. \u201cI\u2019d been banging on about light the entire time and how you can turn something ordinary into something magical just by the way you use light\u2026 it is actually something that is very difficult to teach.\u201d About 10 days into the trip Waugh said to him: \u201cI get it. Light, I get it. I finally understand what you are talking about.\u201d And when Parke saw the frames he\u2019d taken he said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got it, mate. You\u2019re on track.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Mudassir Ahmed repairs a cricket bat. Picture: Steve Waugh<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cIt was a learning tour for me,\u201d says Waugh. \u201cI\u2019d watch Trent, watch how he would set up a scene and then just be patient, waiting for something to come into the photo.\u201d He bombarded him with questions. Did he have the right settings? Was he in the right spot? How\u2019s this composition? Parke says the most important trait Waugh had, apart from enthusiasm and good timing, was a feeling for his subjects. \u201cHe really does have genuine empathy,\u201d he says. He\u2019d take his photos and then, inevitably, there\u2019d be selfies with fans, signatures and a game of cricket. \u201cHe always made sure he gave something back\u2026 he was really genuine in this aspect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    The result is a coffee table book with a couple of hundred photos in it \u2013 probably too many, but there are some wonderful images. \u201cI think that is the interesting thing about Steve,\u201d says Parke. \u201cThat he didn\u2019t go into commentary or coaching, that he\u2019s still out exploring the world and he has a burning desire to be the best at other things, like photography, and that he has a hunger to produce a great body of work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    In Kolkata, they visited a school called Udayan.\u00a0On the wall of a girls\u2019 dormitory at the school is a stone plaque that reads \u201cThe Foundation Stone of Nivedita Bhavan (Udayan Girls Wing) was laid by Steve Waugh, Australian Cricket Captain and Patron, Udayan, on July 21st 1998.\u201d The bland inscription underplays the immense difference this has made to the lives of hundreds of girls.<\/span><\/p>\n

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