“You can’t fight it”: Steve Waugh on the rise of T20s and the future of Test cricket

Steve Waugh, the most successful Test captain in the history of cricket, who once led Australia to fifteen of their record sixteen consecutive Test wins, and to victory in the 1999 ODI WorldCup, was in Madrid for the 25thanniversary of the Laureus World Sports Awards in the city.

Waugh is an academy member of Laureus, a charitable organisation that runs sports development programmes for underprivileged youth in over forty countries and hosts an annual awards show to honour the top sportspeople in the world.

As some of the biggest stars in the world of sports gathered for the awards at Palacio Cibeles, Madrid’s sprawling City Hall—including Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis (who won the Sportsman of the year award), gymnasts Simone Biles (Sportswoman of the year) and Rebeca Andrade (Comeback of the year) and tennis legend Rafael Nadal (Sporting Icon Award)—Waugh found the time for an in-depth discussion with Lounge on the state of cricket, Test cricket’s value, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and much more.

Edited excerpts:

You are obviously busy with the Steve Waugh Foundation, but what went behind the decision to do philanthropic work instead of becoming say, a commentator or a coach, like so many of your colleagues have done?

My foundation, which looks after kids with rare diseases, is 21 years old now and I’m still as passionate about it as ever. I still support Udayan in Calcutta (a residential centre for the rehabilitation of children of leprosy patients in Kolkata) and that’s been a 25-year association now, and I’m also a member of the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation, so yes, philanthropy plays a big part in my life.

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I think there are lots of commentators, lots of coaches. I wanted a challenge, I wanted to go into a different direction. When I retired, I had been on the road as a cricketer for 20 odd years and I had a young family and I wanted to be with them for a change.

T20 has taken over cricket, at the cost of the other formats. What are your feelings about it?

You can’t fight it. That’s the way of the world. People love it. Everything happens quickly and there’s more eyeballs watching cricket, and that translates to more people playing it. Financially players get set up for life, so yeah, T20 has taken over world cricket right now. Test cricket, I think players really want to play it, but if they want to make money they have to play T20.

You are right that many more people can now make a lot of money and quickly get to the elite level of the game because of T20s.

That’s a good thing. When I first started playing, probably only five or six players from the Australian cricket team were professional cricketers. Now, there’s probably a couple of hundred professional cricketers in Australia. India has probably three or four hundred.

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Then you have the support staff, all the coaching staff for all the teams, and you have a massive industry that was never there before in cricket. It’s now a great career path. You also see women’s cricket taking off because of T20s, and it’s great for young girls to have role models and to be able to become a professional sportsperson.

You no longer see the resilience that once defined Test cricket.

The game has changed quite a bit. Expectations are that you got to entertain and score quickly and take wickets quickly so you don’t see many grinding Test matches. When you do see a Test go all five days it’s very exciting to watch, people can’t get enough of it, but the players are so conditioned to quick action these days that it’s hard for them to pull back the technique when they play Test cricket. They are in fast forward all the time.

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A perfect example is Sam Constance who was pulling out reverse sweeps and ramp shots within the first couple of overs of a Test match which was almost unthinkable a few years ago. But the modern players think you can do whatever you want and do it whenever you want. It’s great to watch, but we have to be careful that we don’t lose what Test cricket stands for and the way it’s played.

Do you mean technique has suffered?

For sure. The technique is completely different for T20, you are moving across the stumps all the time and I think it’s pretty hard to magically switch back into First Class mode. Only the very mentally strong would be able to do that. The modern thinking is, it’s not a bad shot if you get out to it, it’s just the way you play.

On the other hand, one of the effects of T20s, specifically the IPL has been the rise of fast bowling in India. Did you ever think India would be a fast bowling nation?

No! When I was playing, the pitches had no grass, they were so slow, and it was back breaking work for the quicks. Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath…I don’t know how they did it. Now the pitches are a bit more conducive to fast bowling and the IPL has helped as well because of the demand for strike bowlers.

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I think there is a lot more professionalism, a lot more strength coaching input so you have much stronger, fitter players now. And then you have the emergence of a role model like Bumrah, and suddenly every young kid in India wants to bowl quick and it becomes self-fulfilling.

What makes Bumrah the best fast bowler in the world?

His control is impeccable. He has an amazing wrist. I’ve never faced him but I think those who do, find him quicker than they expect. He lets the ball go from a different height and position than everyone else. He is a fierce competitor, and he works batsmen out really well. You can see him thinking it through, analysing, and working out just what he needs to do to get a batsman out.

Ashes or Border-Gavaskar? Which is the bigger Test series for you?

They are both huge. When we play the Border-Gavaskar, that’s the most important series, when we play Ashes that’s the most important series. Players love playing both. Obviously there is a longer history with the Ashes, a great history and tradition. But I think in significance they are equal now because India and Australia have been the two best Test playing nations for 10-15 years. So the Border-Gavaskar is like a battle for who is the best team in the world.

The Ashes is more like bragging rights—we hate to lose to England and vice versa, just like when India play Pakistan. Last year’s Ashes was amazing. It drew record crowds. This Ashes will be sold out too. 90,000 people in the MCG every day.

The Gabba will be pulled down for a new structure for the Olympics. Will you miss it?

Well I guess the Olympics takes precedence over everything. I’m ok with that. Obviously the Gabba has been a great venue for Australian cricket but I do believe that the ground should not matter too much and the Olympics is the ultimate in sports, so, happy to make way for the Olympics.

Rudraneil Sengupta is the author of Enter the Dangal, Travels through India’s Wrestling Landscape.

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