Out Of My Comfort Zone

Steve Waugh, Viking, A$49.95

Steve Waugh's career was an epic so it's not surprising he produced a doorstop that dwarfs the Almanack. Waugh's cover is a shade of baggy green and his devotion to it is a theme throughout the 800 pages of memories. However, the big statements delivered by his batting and in captaincy press conferences are replaced by brief judgments as he records the key moments of his career as studiously as he compiled his popular diaries.

Unfortunately, the tour books are part of the problem. Through the diaries most details were recorded in satisfying, if sometimes repetitive, detail; in the life story the events from him being kicked out of the nets as an aggressive 12-year-old by Barry Richards to his farewell a year later are dutifully reported but not pored over, making it a great resource tool instead of a thrilling, moving and thought-provoking experience. The match-fixing and betting scandals that so affected his brother are covered in less than a chapter and the famous SCG century, an experience which was the subject of the book Never Say Die, is dusted in three pages.

Waugh is at his best when discussing his great innings and his feelings, which were usually masked by the Iceman glare. The twin hundreds at Old Trafford in 1997 and the series-sealing double-century against West Indies in 1995 are compulsive but short reading, and his re-telling of the vulnerability at the start of his career, when he felt isolated as a new player, and at the end as he debated the merits of family life and retirement is also impressive. The variety of coverage is strong enough to hold interest but if finishing it is a mission you want to accept then be prepared for hands that ached as much as Waugh's during his Old Trafford double.