Waugh zone

Here's a lovely, long appreciation, by Gideon Haigh, of a soon-to-retire cricketing titan. I would urge you to read it all if you love cricket; and, if you don't, just to read it from beginning to end. One passage I particularly liked was this:

[Geoff] Lawson enjoys telling the story of Waugh's record-breaking fifth-wicket partnership of 464 in 407 minutes with his twin Mark for New South Wales against Western Australia in Perth in December 1990: "It was the most sublime batting you've ever seen. McCabe at Trent Bridge stuff, against a quality attack including Terry Alderman and Bruce Reid."

But what Lawson recalls with greatest clarity is the Waughs' response to his declaration at 601 for four. "Mark [229 not out] came in all smiles; Steve [216 not out] was not happy. He was changing next to me in the dressing room and he started complaining, 'What did you do that for? What do we play for?' I was a bit taken aback, I can tell you, and I said, "Well, we do have 600.' Steve said, 'We could have got 1,000'."

Steve has been my kind of a cricketer. I've always been against premature declarations, especially by Australia when playing England.