Who was the most intimidating bowler Waugh faced? | Michael Atherton meets Steve Waugh | Part 1

Steve war is one of Australia's most successful captain's his playing and captaincy career was part of a Golden Age of Australian cricket a side that is considered to be one of the best if not the best of all time I met him at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the ashes tour in 2018 before the ball tampering scandal that occurred just three months later we discuss life growing up with his brother mark his battles against England and the West Indies his captaincy style life after cricket and what mental disintegration was all about Steve at the Sydney Cricket Ground named after you you've got a statue just outside the frontier we're in the museum where you've got your baggy green and your red hankerchief one or two bats it's obviously a very special place with some wonderful memories what standout yeah look I think when I walk into this ground first every time I come back to this ground the first time it takes me back to when I was 10 years of age with the under 10 Pannonia skills created Club and coach took us out in the back of the east car the back of the year there was 12 kids hopped in the back of his car we came out watch a steel match and the first time walked into the ground I was sort of transfixed by it I was just that big open space and it was see girls on the outfield and white picket fence in the big scoreboard and New South Wales were playing together silence to remember it was I think Ron crippled and Marshall Rose I'm havin batting for New South Wales so it was 40 odd years ago and we sat on the hill and watch the game of shield Creed I thought Jesus would be great to play you one day and that was my first memory and obviously after there there was so many other memories but yeah the first time I walked in the ground I thought this was just a magic you know magical place the last 400 against England amazing my first real strong memory here was playing the steel file in my first year and I was against Queens that's probably the best game of cricket ever played and we got a billion coins then nine down but remember as we walked out on the ground for that Shore final of Iran Wilson was employed in there collapsed and five minutes before the game started so there's this puffer dust and the stand went down and and it became an amazing game of cricket against you know Allen border and Carl recommen and Kepler vessels and Greg Richey and it was like it almost a Test match and that was sort of my first experience of playing top blast Allen border was in the opposition I made 70 in the final and probably made a bit of an impression but obviously after that there was you know 18 years of playing International cricket and as you mentioned the last ball hundred sort of stands out and playing my last Test match here so it was always a great place to play a bit for me I probably felt a bit more pressure playing in your home ground you you really want to do well and sometimes I might have you know over try when I played in Sydney let's go back to the start your family one of you the quotes in your book the competitive instincts may be genetic but in my experience they can be accelerated and brought to the surface if stimulated it sounds like they were stimulated a lot at home you had four boys they're sure constantly playing cricket all sports against each other yeah we lived in British sport was 24/7 I mean school was just an excuse to get into any sort of sporting team and have a day off playing a different type of sport and mum and dad were good tennis players dad played with Newcombe and Roche and one play with you know Evonne Goolagong at the time so it was in our blood I guess and we're always outside and in Australia back in the I guess yeah the 70s they're big backyards and you get around to your mates place and and mum and dad say just make sure you're home for dinner holidays she leaving 9 and morning and come back at 8 o'clock at night so you're always out so I playing and we played so much competitive stuff in the backyard and you wanted to be better than your brother of course and it was was full-on and it's very competitive and there's a few fights at the back and we learned how we honed our techniques as well and competitive instincts and and we learn off each other so that was that was a way it was it was sport was our life it was just 24/7 another anecdote absolutely facet made fascinated me and you bought your wife wrote a chapter yeah and she talked about the first time she went to the war household good enjoy a bit your parents put down a plate of sausages or something in the middle of the table and she said before these sausages kind of hit the table the forks went in yeah the implication being that you know you have to have a little bit sharp elbows to survive in the war of course yeah look everything was a competition and for boys and and being twins you you constantly compared I mean you know who got the best marks of school who's got the most goals do get the most runs and said they always just was always on and yeah just so while I was you know we're four four boys and competitive and plenty of energy enthusiasm so everything was a competition no matter what I'm doing the great players have to have a hint of selfish or the great batsman I should have a hint of selfishness in them anyway yeah I think so I think you've got to make the most of your ability and as long as you're doing it for the benefit aside then that's fine players preparing different ways and playing different ways but yeah you've got to be focused you've got to make sacrifices and and even as a young kid I remember that mark myself made a first-grader booze there's 17 year olds and we sacrifice not going on our school excursion for year 11 in year 12 which was a big thing we talked about it for a long time and in a lot of ways that was selfish because we didn't go where their mates but we knew that that was a path with one of the takes so you've got to make certain decisions in your life to to get to your end goal and sometimes that means you've got to do what's right for you the relationship with mark again reading your book I found it interesting in that they're elements of great warmth it would seem when the relationship but also parts that suggested a bit of distance and not coldness might be the wrong word but I mean clearly you're twins for born four minutes apart and that seemed to be at the heart of it because you said at one point being competitive and being able to be seen as individuals drove a wedge between us that took years to remove so it suggests it was not always a straightforward relationship no probably not because has said you know we'll always in the same teams always in the same classes I mean we lived in the same bedroom for 16 years we shared the same clothes I mean we were constantly in each other's reach I me always we lived in each other's pockets and wherever we went we sort of went together and the comparisons were inevitable and we were good at sport I mean any to what we played we were probably the best at and you know so it was just this this all-encompassing who's a better Warren and the competition at school who got the most marks and I'd say dinner who's got the shotty whoever most it was it was on so we we almost made I am I don't know whether it was subconscious they're constantly but when we got to 19 applying for New South Wales was like let's go different directions and let's be around person because we're always seen as as a couple of months and in some ways that sort of drove us a bit apart I mean we'd had different bad sponsorships we never did any endorsement together I guess her interests varied I mean I was on tour I would like to go and take photographs and meet the people market like the stay at hotels and maybe have I been on the racist yeah we have different interests and it sort of grew from that but yeah we have that mutual respect and you know I always want a mark to do well and when he wasn't in the test side I walked out in the ground firm and it just felt like I'd sort of lost something that he wasn't there so yeah in some ways people would see it as a bit of a strange relationship but we have that respect for each other and whilst we don't ring up and talk to each other a lot we when we catch up it's you know it's good to see each other but we have I guess so socially do you catch up much well not a lot because mark lives a couple of hours away I have three kids I mean mark has his horses and his interest some life still moves on and you go different directions and it's just I think I think that's pretty normal for most people and the ashes did that did they mean a lot to you as a boy growing up in Australia didn't necessarily have a great time of it just before you got into the tea yeah look it was a big part of our back yard battles at Pannonia and the western suburbs of Sydney I was marking myself obviously and then Dean came on three years younger and Danny was 10 years younger but we are three cricket pitches in in our home at Pannonia the first the front yard was a pitch that sloped bit like Lords probably a bit slower than Lords and consequently every ball went from offside the league side so we both become good League side players it was a pitch at the front then we had the driveway which was their second pitch and again that was a bit of a slope down to an hour ago it's drawn and then our third pitch was in the backyard which was a bit of a minefield for batters because the clothesline was out there he fit in the swimming pool that was out over the backyard fence was out and we'd have the toss we throw the bat up in the air was Hills or valleys we have a loss of toss had to be England which was a bit hard to take any other person be the Australia so it was you know listening Magoo or a commentator and hearing all those great names and think Jesus how do I get to play for Australia or is that possible so we were always dreaming of playing participating is there any sense of inferiority complex of the star Mena you came into an Australian team that was struggling being beaten up a bit by a fee and gap Gow are these big names of English cricket took a long time for you to win a test match young a dozen before you want yeah no you're right it was tough times I mean people always tend to associate myself and Australian with winning but you're right it's 1213 Test matches before a 126 test mates before us got a century a lot of soft out and you're right England you know coming up in the playing it single where there's great names it was you were a bit intimidated you wanted to do well but it won't quite sure we there could not be on the same Park as those guys and that took me probably a couple of years to realise that I was good enough that I I did struggle mentally and probably technically I was pretty much rushed into the Australian side because we're 16 players going to rebel to her South Africa Lily Marsh and Chapel or retired at the same time so there's 19 players out of the system and I was a young kid on the block it's got two centuries my first seven games and all of a sudden I'm in there playing tests quicker and I'd never really faced a quality spinner or a real out-and-out right quick so yeah I come in a Test cricket I feel a bit out of my depth having read your book I mean there's a strong thread I felt through it I have a slight I don't know whether you'd call it superiority complex compared to English cricket I fell through the book and yet almost as if it wasn't just that Australia had better cricketers but there was a broader dimension to it we was we were more together we were mentally tough but if you look at the history of the game actually both countries of 1-watt 36 series each so it suggests that you know neither system is necessarily better than the other no your honor I'm in a cricket a lot of time is about bluff and body language and pretending you're better than opposition or let them know or let him think you're better and once you're winning it becomes you know the press buying or that and all of a sudden I think sometimes the opposition teams start to believe that so I was a big believer in you know I guess perpetuating that and letting I guess the media know that we we enjoyed pressure we expected it we wanted to be number one and we wanted to try and improve so we gave out those positive vibes and and quotes in the in the in in the media but that was I learnt that from the West Indies but now are the great side I mean they're always very positive the way they carried themselves the way they talked and they almost intimidated opposition by what they said and what they did and and that was something that I've tried to the implication being though that you have the same fears to say what worries you I knew that I'm an and I knew that a lot of times when I was playing it's England that man man you guys had a really good sight on paper but I think we felt that for some reason that when it came down to the crunch situation or the big big moments and Matt said we believed we could get through those better than than maybe England could so and that's something that I guess is learnt behaviour and becomes a habit but at the end the day just takes one play from the others you decide to say hang on this is not the way it's gonna happen let's let's turn it around and and for me one of the biggest moments in my career was being on the opposite side of there against the West Indies and you know copying it gets the West Indies quicksand when I got the ball on my hand via breeches was batting I thought hang on we're Carpentier we we're not even fighting bad I didn't uh I thought I'll give you a batch and I gave him one that felt good and be a bit of a wry smile I'm went back and thought I'm a good ball I'm another one I'm bowled another one he could seemed a bit more serious and I thought I really enjoyed that I'm a little try three in a row and that's when you gives so he could see the anger you know boil up and swatting but at that moment I knew I had his respect and we were back playing a game of cricket and they I knew they were in for a battle so how old were you 21 I think 21 but I think instinctively that was my inner self coming out and letting myself express myself on the on the field I think the Australian survives back in those days remember team meetings it was more about competing and let's see how we go is not really let's get stuck and let's try and beat these guys I don't think we believe we could beat them and maybe that was a mentality some of the England sides had against us when we're playing well that you don't quite believe and it just needs someone to step up and have a go it taught me something about myself for doing the matter I've got a 91 in the second innings and and it taught me that that's what I needed to get going I needed to be stimulated I needed to get it in the battle and I needed to get stuck in and it was a wild play my best cricket and and I learn a lot from that from that imagine it going forward that was why I tried to play my cricket a long time to get your first test hundred why did it take you so long to crack it I think I've always been a person that I tried to find my way to do things even as a captain I didn't listen to too many other people I wanted to if I was going to make a mistake I wanted to be an original mistake I don't want to be someone else's mistake and the strength or a weakness both are they going is both any you know a bit of stubbornness and and try find your way but I knew eventually I'll get it right and it did take me a few years I probably saved myself in those days when but with my boiling I've taken three five furs before it's got a test match hundred so my bowling is pretty good and I was pretty handy in the field and I think luckily back in those days we had really good selectors with Lori Saul who you could see the potential a lot of pliers and stuck with him maybe there wasn't the option because it wasn't a lot of depth around that time so I was lucky that that wasn't the case but yeah there was there were tough times early on and you change your game quite significantly when you were - sure at the start yeah you decided very deliberately to put away the hook shot by the time I came to play again for example yeah you know deliberate effort to what become more consistent and resilient less flashy who's about trying to score runs against the Western is to start with and I got two 90s in that first series in Australia and I look back at those and you know they're almost life-changing is for me and and I started not put the whole show legs I thought they're too quick these guys I mean they're getting filled in I'm going to get out and well I started getting runs a lot this is not a bad system so it almost became by a mistake that I put away the hook shot because you're right as a 17 18 or 19 are playing on the SF scholarship for Essex I was compulsive Booker I mean I'll be pulling a hooking every second ball and and doing it pretty well but then these guys are buying another 10 15 miles an hour quicker and it was just became a necessity for one of the school rounds I had to try modify my game and when it became successful I thought let's stick with it it meant that you often looked uncomfortable against your balls you know you'd turn your back let it hit you like Flynn sure you weren't scared of the short ball but it provided some problems along the way but you found a way of kind of handling yeah yeah I always tried to find a way to get around stuff you're right I mean there was awkward situations and Bob Simpson was a big help because a lot of time the short ball I was getting sort of tucked up and he just said look pretty simply you got to get your elbow out and get ride with a ball so for a lot of years I was getting locked up and you're right I was getting hit a lot in the ribs and hands and never too much in the helmet but yeah it did look awkward and uncomfortable but after a while I sort of bought into the fact that actually wasn't getting me out the bottles were using up a lot of energy and and maybe it wasn't that bad after all and as I said before I liked the fight in the game and and the something came out from within me when there was a rule battle and I didn't mind getting hit I knew that was wasn't gonna hurt me too seriously and I was a bit of ice out for the game I'll be okay and in a lot of ways I think I got strength from the fact that I get hit and to stand there and the balls I think well that didn't really hurt him so almost no way I was tricking myself into thinking this is this is a good way to play you know right aesthetically I probably didn't look that great at nothing and this guy's gonna get out any minute and a couple of times I did but but most times I found a way to survive all that that he'd been talking about came together in the endings against curtly Ambrose famously in 95 I suppose that tour of 95 Ambrose was a great ballin and incredible adversary and probably my most respected opponent because you know he never said anything to you and that was that was worse than sledging because you didn't know what he was thinking you know is he trying to get me out or is he trying to physically hurt me and that's worse and actually someone telling you what they're gonna do and he was always there on a good length and his short ball was at your throat yeah so that was you know he was an incredible competitor but yeah the Western is just I guess I'm a give me as a player and that probably goes back to Bob Simpson again it doesn't get a lot of credit but after you know the first couple of test matches he said the group of batsmen down he said look it this is not good enough yes somewhere one of you guys has gotta go and get a big hunter and we said well hang on look what are you gonna try this for quicks this is pretty how we're doing our best but I walked away from their meeting it was on the beach I think in an ante grow by betaf or somewhere and I thought yeah maybe there's something in what he's saying here like are we tough enough and can we break through and get that big score and and that happened in the 200 in in Jamaica sometimes you gotta be sat down and told the truth and that was it we were probably little bit soft and we could do better and getting that 200 Willie was probably the highlight of my batting career you know that up against the best team in the world they had been unbeaten for 15 years we hadn't beaten for 22 years it was one all the most significant tests on their home ground against the best side all those sacrifices and training and effort and their mark I'm soft at Birth got hundreds so I was like almost padding in the backyard 30 odd years before that it all came together and we we got the runs in the toughest situation [Music]

Channel: Sky Sports Cricket

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Keywords: Sky Sports, Sky Sports Cricket, cricket, sky cricket, steve waugh, athers, michael atherton, micaehl atherton meets steve waugh, steve waugh interview, steve waugh batting, steve waugh run out, steve waugh bowling, steve waugh ashes

Id: bzlj9nhP99Y

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020