Steve Waugh has returned to the Australian set-up as a mentor for the crucial fourth Test starting on Wednesday. It is perfect timing considering few players in history have dominated at Old Trafford like Waugh.
This historic ground in Manchester was a special venue for the Australian legend, who was incredibly influential in all three Tests he played here. He finished with a haul of 397 runs at 99 at Old Trafford, his second-highest Test average at any ground in the world where he scored at least 250 runs.
This golden run started in 1989 on a Test tour that not only kickstarted Waugh’s career, but also set the Australian team on the path from easy beats to champions.
They were labelled the worst team ever to leave Australia – a side brimming with larrikins and smokers and record-breaking drinkers, who were expected to be flogged by an England team that hadn’t lost at home to Australia since 1975.
This was the time of David Boon’s beer record, Merv Hughes’ dodgy pranks, Border’s snubbing of the England players, and the making of future stars like Waugh, Mark Taylor, Ian Healy and Dean Jones.
England fell apart so badly in front of their home crowd that, while Australia used only 12 players for the series, England unbelievably chewed through 29 cricketers.
Australia would have won 6-0 if not for two draws they dominated. This was Australia’s first big Test series win after almost a decade in the wilderness, a triumph that laid the platform for a long era of excellence.
The Australian balcony reacts to clinching the 1989 Ashes at Old Trafford. (Adrian Murrell/Getty Images)
Waugh began that series as a 24-year-old all-rounder still trying to prove himself at Test level. After 26 Tests he had yet to make a century. Then he plundered 506 runs at 126 in that Ashes.
Old Trafford hosted the fourth Test in that series, with Australia 2-0 up and needing a victory in Manchester to reclaim the Ashes. England batted first and were all out for 260. When Waugh came out to bat, Australia were 4-274 and England were still in the Test.
Any hopes the hosts had of fighting their way back into that Test and the series were extinguished when Waugh cruised to 92. Australia had run up a huge 187-run first innings lead and had a steady grip on the urn.
Waugh, meanwhile, had now scored a scarcely believable 485 runs at 243 for the series. When Australia returned to Old Trafford four years later they were now one of the best Test teams in the world, and less than two years away from knocking off the West Indies in the Caribbean to become the unofficial number one side.
But, although Waugh had improved as a Test cricketer, even at 28 years old he was still a long way short of the batsman he would eventually become. After 52 Tests he was averaging just 36 with the bat and had scored only four tons.
Given Waugh was no longer really an all-rounder, used sparingly with the ball by this stage, he was at a crossroads in his career. Competition for batting spots in the Australian side was growing increasingly fierce.
This 1993 Ashes proved to be the turning point in Waugh’s career. He churned out 416 runs at 83 and, from the start of this series to the end of his Test career, piled up 8424 runs at 58.
Again Old Trafford was kind to Waugh in that series. This time the venue hosted the first Test of the series. Australia wanted to make a statement.
In the second innings of this Test, England were clinging on, not yet completely out of the game when Waugh came out to bat. Then Waugh (78*) and wicketkeeper Healy put on a rollicking unbroken stand of 180 to demoralise England. Australia went on to crush the hosts 4-1.
Waugh saved his finest effort at Old Trafford for his final appearance there in the 1997 Ashes. By this stage Australia were a dominant Test team, England were a shambles and this series was expected to be one-sided.
(Clive Mason /Allsport)
Then the hosts flipped the script. They thrashed Australia by nine wickets in the first Test, before the second Test ended in a rain-affected draw. The third Test was at Old Trafford, Australia were 1-0 down and the Manchester pitch was a green seamer. Now one of the top three Test batsmen in the world, alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, Waugh needed to step up.
He duly produced one of the best performances of his career, second only to his imperious 200 in the deciding Test in the Caribbean in 1995, which finally knocked the West Indies off their lofty perch.
As the Australian batsmen struggled against the generous lateral movement on offer, Waugh was unmovable, scoring nearly half his team’s total as he made 108. In the second innings Australia’s top order failed once more, slumping to 3-39. So Waugh clung to the crease like a barnacle, batting for 383 minutes as he scored his second ton for the match.
This was the grit for which Waugh was famous. The grit that seemed to emerge whenever he arrived in Manchester.
The same grit the current Australian team need to discover if they are to retain the Ashes at Old Trafford this week.
This series’ twelfth and final team has a distinct West Indian flavour at the top of the order, and a domineering captain.
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