Mark Waugh at slip

Cricket memories come in different shapes. Some are of individual episodes: a dismissal, a great innings, the tension surrounding the end of a particular game. But others are more general. They are of the style and bearing of a cricketer, how he played certain shots, how he carried himself. Amongst memories of this kind that I have: Garfield Sobers, the ease and grace with which he moved; Michael Holding running in to bowl; Shane Warne's facial and other antics in the whole dramatic performance that was his bowling; the menace in Viv Richards as he walked out to begin an innings. And then there was Mark Waugh fielding at slip. It wasn't just that he was a brilliant fielder in that position. It was that he stood there and he caught his catches with the same, seemingly casual, elegance as he displayed in batting. He'd stand chatting to his neighbour - often Warney - between deliveries, and then, when a sharp chance came his way, take it comfortably, sometimes almost languidly, as if there were time to spare.

I remember one of his catches especially. It was taken on the final morning of the fourth Test against England at Headingley in 1997. There were other memorable things about this Test: Matthew Elliott was bowled out by Darren Gough on 199; Ricky Ponting scored his maiden Test hundred; Jason Gillespie achieved his best ever bowling figures - 7 for 37 - for a Test innings. On that last morning, Nasser Hussain was resuming with a century already under his belt, but he was dismissed early on. In the book I wrote about this series with Ian Holliday, Ashes '97: Two Views from the Boundary (free copies still available from me), I described Waugh's catch to dismiss Mark Ealham as follows:

Ealham helped Crawley mount an hour's further resistance during which time he scored an extremely slow 4. He was caught absolutely brilliantly by Mark Waugh at second slip, off the bowling of Reiffel. The ball was already past Waugh and was going some; he shot out his right hand, seized it and, turning, gathered it safely to him. This was certainly the catch of the series so far.
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The image, in any event, that I think I will retain longest from this match is one I got, not at the ground itself, but only on returning home. I got it from the BBC highlights of the final day. It is of Waugh's wonderful catch to dismiss Mark Ealham. It is accompanied by the exclamations of Richie Benaud who, though always generous where praise is deserved, has by now seen too much to be easily surprised. His mere utterance of the name 'Mark Waugh' here says it all. But the thing I will remember, and cherish, more particularly, is the Australian fielders crowding around Waugh, unable to contain their admiration and delight. Shane Warne comes away from the now customary exchange of hugs and, beaming, puts his hands to his head for a moment as if to say, 'Did you see that?'

Some other accounts:

The end came quickly enough. England were bowled out for 268 to lose by an innings, with Reiffel adding five more wickets to his 54 not out. - Wisden 1998

England might have entertained dreams of Crawley or Nasser or the weather saving them on the last day. Instead, Warney got Nasser early on the final morning and the Poms lost six wickets for 50 runs. - Mark Waugh, A Year to Remember

Hussain's departure to a loose shot early on signalled the beginning of the end. Mark Ealham then fell to a superb reflex catch by Mark Waugh that said to all of us - let's go for the jugular, it's our day. - Steve Waugh (and Nasser Hussain), Ashes Summer

Crawley and Ealham then stuck around for over an hour to induce a small element of anxiety among Australians. However, when Ealham was brilliantly caught one-handed by Mark Waugh at second slip off Reiffel for 4 after 67 minutes and 47 balls of resistance (one of the slowest 4s in Test match history?), the collapse began in earnest. - Ian Holliday, Ashes '97: Two Views from the Boundary

Mark Ealham then dug in for about an hour with John Crawley, although there were very few runs. On the introduction of the second new ball we got Ealham, caught in slips by Mark Waugh off Reiffel. - Mark Taylor, A Captain's Year

Another thing I'll remember about Mark Waugh that is somewhat apropos is the response he gave (during the 2001 Ashes series) to a question from an interviewer. Asked if he had any advice to offer the England players, who had been dropping many catches, Waugh replied: 'Advice? Keep dropping them. That's the advice'.

[For links to the other posts in this series, see here.]