Steve Waugh bats for the SCG

The Sydney Cricket Ground has found its first supporter just a couple of days after reports in the media suggested that it could lose its status as the main venue in New South Wales. Not surprisingly, that man was Steve Waugh, who has had many a memorable outing there in his 18-year international career.

"I'd hate to see Test matches leave the SCG," The Sunday Telegraph quoted him as saying. "It's got such a special feel; the change-rooms, the walk out in front of a crowd. But I can see the commercial and revenue aspects of what they are looking at and they need to do that for the future of cricket, just as long as they do it and the game doesn't suffer."

ABC Sport reported that Cricket New South Wales has called for tenders for a long-term contract to host international matches, after its contract with the SCG expires in September 2005. The Olympic Stadium, which has a bigger capacity and has already hosted a couple of one-day games featuring New South Wales, is an option, but Waugh made it clear what he thought about the issue.

"We love to see the tradition at the SCG and the players would be disappointed if there weren't Test matches there," he said. "It's a great venue and has a lot of history attached to it. We don't want to throw away that history. For me, it's a particularly special place given what has happened there the last couple of years."

He can say that again. In each of the last two seasons, Waugh has had especially memorable matches at the SCG. In 2002-03, against England, Waugh got to his hundred - the last of his Test career - in quite dramatic fashion, off the last ball on the second day. Then, the following season, he scored a gutsy 80 to stave off defeat against India.

Waugh stated that a better option might be to shift the one-dayers to a new venue, and leave the Tests untouched. "I don't see a problem with moving the one-dayers, because there's not as much history attached," Waugh said. "You've got an 80,000 capacity stadium and it would be an option. The more commercial aspect of the game is the one-dayers."

Meanwhile, the SCG Trust has revealed that it is already working towards providing a facelift to the stadium. Plans include increasing the capacity from 46,000 to 55,000 and modernise existing facilities.