Was Steve Waugh a selfish cricketer? - yes according to Chappelli

[quincywagstaff]

Steve Waugh to me seems the epitome of a decent vanilla human. Never been involved in any scandals etc, honours his elders, treats people with respect and dignity.

While there were aspects of his cricketing style and leadership that irked me, this is true. And it should be added that despite Chappell and Warne doing this regularly over the past decade he has hardly ever responded in public when he could’ve easily indulged in a slanging match.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Chappell discusses his selection and Waugh,

Category: | Herald Sun

He doesn't give two ***** about the whole 'Baggy Green' thingy.

 

[vcs]

The point of the game is to win.

The term "mental disintegration" gets thrown around a lot, but why is Waugh getting **** for it just because he coined it? Were Ponting and Clarke's sides any better behaved or gracious ("broken ****ing arm", bullying umpires etc.)? Even India under Kohli can be ****s at times. Grinding opponents to dust is just being ruthless and professional. Keeping tired opponents on the field, piling mountains of runs on when you're on top, getting opposition bowlers burnt out/injured, it's all part of the game.

 

[mr_mister]

Yes Kohli is horrible I agree. I seriously doubt I'd get along with pup either. Punter seems like an awesome bloke these days based on his commentary I'll leave it at that


Steve Smith telling off Starc for trying to be a bully or whatever last year was great to see

A lot of why I hate sledging so much is because I've experienced how unpleasant it is at club level for years

 

[harsh.ag]

Man management is key. You can't motivate someone like a Miller and a MWaugh with "This is war" chants. So you mix it up.

 

[mr_mister]

Mark and Steve's relationship is pretty interesting actually

 

[cnerd123]

The concept of professional sports is an interesting one. It's almost paradoxical. Sports are meant to be fun. They exist for entertainment, recreation, exercise, socializing. Yet at the highest levels all of that gets lost and it turns into a job. You need to be professional, disciplined, put the hard work in, be responsible with the way you play (another paradoxical statement). Then you talk about men like Steve Waugh, and it's basically now a war. Ruthless, grind your opposition to dust, no mercy, no respite, win at all costs.

Personally I'm not a fan of people who take sports to the extreme of war. By all means, be professional, work hard, be responsible, put the team ahead of yourself. That's what you gotta do in exchange for having the privilege of playing sports for a living. But I don't like it when athletes are nasty, joyless, angry, trying to win at all costs, even if the cost is the your opposition's mental and physical health. Winning a game of cricket just isn't worth that for me.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Successful cricketers, batsmen especially are almost all selfish. It's basically a pre-requisite. The hunger for runs needed to make runs at that level and quantity requires selfishness.

 

[Burgey]

Waugh’s team behaved worse than Ponting’s or Clarke’s. By a long way.

 

[OverratedSanity]

They were all ******, cheating aussie ****s who cares. Waugh just gets more **** because he coined the phrase and his team won more.

I was also very glad how much Lara tore into the Windies of the 80s for their own gamesmanship in that recent speech. What Waugh's team did was hardly unique.

 

[Burgey]

lol cheating

 

[S.Kennedy]

The West Indian pacey era was a disgrace really compared to the Worrell era but everyone romanticizes about them trying to kill batsmen - even post Phil Hughes.

 

[Coronis]

Steve Waugh to me seems the epitome of a decent vanilla human. Never been involved in any scandals etc, honours his elders, treats people with respect and dignity.

Definitely pre-requisite of a decent human being.

 

[Starfighter]

The West Indian pacey era was a disgrace really compared to the Worrell era but everyone romanticizes about them trying to kill batsmen - even post Phil Hughes.

But West Indians are just naturally joyful, exciting players and we should be expected to romanticise everything they do.

Or at least that's they way it seems to be, for some reason.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah the term mental disintegration is pretty horrible with what we now know about bullying and mental health in males

Very sober and salient point.

 

[Top_Cat]

Omission of Taylor much more interesting than Waugh's, personally. Aside from having a really good overall Ashes record anyway, Tubb's first full series is still the 3rd highest number of runs on a Test series ever and that in the Aussies' first Ashes win in England for 20 years. Aside from the raw number of runs, one would think he'd deserve a place in any 'best Ashes performer' list for that alone.

 

[Adders]

Omission of Taylor much more interesting than Waugh's, personally. Aside from having a really good overall Ashes record anyway, Tubb's first full series is still the 3rd highest number of runs on a Test series ever and that in the Aussies' first Ashes win in England for 20 years. Aside from the raw number of runs, one would think he'd deserve a place in any 'best Ashes performer' list for that alone.

By that token then Cook should be nailed in too. Taylor scored 839 @ 83.90 in 6 tests that series.........in 10/11 Cook scored 766 @ 127.66 in 5 tests. And that was England's first win in Aus for 24 years.

 

[Burgey]

Cook is already in the list

 

[Adders]

Thats ok then.

 

[Flem274*]

The difference between a good or very good team and a great one is a few Steve Waugh like cricketers tbh who basically say "we win, or the opposition go home either mentally broken or in a body bag"

How often do you hear fans of teams belted in Australia get high and mighty about how the Aussies are nasty, sledgers, cheats, breaking umpires to their will etc but the fact remains the touring side still got embarrassed? All the time.

Waughs a complete dick. Ponting was a dick. Clarke was a complete dick. Ian Chappell is the worst of the lot because I still have to listen to him. Smiths a little kid who throws his toys. That's fine. You go there, you suspend the usual spirit of cricket dribble and you send them home in body bags like the 80s West Indies did, because the 1980s West Indies were complete dicks.

After a few brain damages they'll whine about "the line, we play hard but we don't cross the line, the line!" but that's ok. If they don't have any fit players then it's harder for them to moan.