Steve Waugh lashes out at conditions in India

Steve Waugh supports charities in India. Steve Waugh has an association with `Sporting Frontiers' and has gone on record to say that he would be back in India in some capacity or the other in the future. Every day, thousands of fans around the country send mail to editors expressing their admiration for the Aussie skipper. Wait until they read what he told a reporter of the Sydney Morning Herald on landing in Sydney. After showering India with praise after the last game at Goa, the Aussie skipper has made some rather unkind comments about various aspects of the tour.

"It's a multi-million-dollar game. I can't see how we can play at venues where there is no indication of which bowler has bowled how many overs and there are never any clocks anywhere," said Steve Waugh, referring pointedly to some of the smaller venues in which cricket was played this series. Goa was a case in point, with the scoreboard being almost invisible. And yet why then did Steve Waugh say "At Goa, the ground was fantastic and the facilities were pretty good" in his column that appeared on CricInfo on the 7th of April?

Well, the facilities are the same for both teams. If India can keep quiet and get on with the game, why not Australia? Perhaps they're above things like this. "As a captain, it makes it very difficult. Things should be a little bit more professional," the Aussie skipper went on. Well what about all those Test matches played in the past, when technology was not what it is today? Captains seemed to manage quite well those days. Steve Waugh can't be suggesting that those captains were any less professional than him.

"I think another couple of weeks here and some of the guys would probably end up at breaking point," said Waugh. When a team from the subcontinent tours a place like England where the cold is something alien, they're expected to put their heads down and get on with the game. When Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad could not find a decent vegetarian meal and were forced to switch to non-vegetarianism no one batted an eyelid. On this tour, the Australians had the option of choosing their menu. Staying in some of the most plush hotels in the country, the Australians had everything they wanted catered to them. And yet, nothing was ever enough.

Ironically, Steve Waugh saves his best for last. "Steve Waugh says the International Cricket Council should standardise penalties, rather than leave the punishment to the whims of match referees," writes the Sydney Morning Herald. That's rich, coming from a team that indulged in every form of gamesmanship ever devised. If anyone benefited from inconsistency on the part of the match referee, it was the visitors. Michael Slater was lucky not to be sent straight home after his tiff with umpire Venkataraghavan and Rahul Dravid. On the field, there were two players who showed great control Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist. The things the others said would make a sailor blush.

It's not new for a visiting captain to appease hosts by singing their praises while on tour, only to change the tune completely on returning home. That is the surest sign of an insecure, whinging captain. But surely, Steven Rodger Waugh is not one of those? He's a great ambassador for Australian cricket, a great leader of men... Ask anyone in the Indian team and they'll tell you about the great men they played against.