Steve Waugh

Steve Waugh captained Australia to a world-record 16 consecutive Test wins and the 1999 World Cup title, built on a temperament so unshakeable his own team-mates called him "Iceman." Across an 18-year, 168-Test career he scored 10,927 runs at 51.06, and when he retired in January 2004 he did so as, by win percentage, the most successful Test captain the game has produced.

Forged in Bankstown

Born in Sydney's south-west on 2 June 1965, four minutes before his twin brother Mark, Waugh grew up in the suburb of Panania and broke into the New South Wales first-class side in 1984–85. He made his Test debut in the Boxing Day Test against India at the MCG in December 1985 — the second Test of that series — and his One Day International debut the following month against New Zealand. He was part of the Australian squad that won the 1987 World Cup on the subcontinent, though as a Test batsman his early years were streaky: an eye-catching back-foot striker who took years to convert starts into the big, patient scores that later defined him.

The world-record streak

Waugh took over the one-day captaincy in 1997–98 and the Test captaincy in 1999, and built the most dominant Australian side of the era almost immediately. The run began with a one-off Test in Harare, where Australia beat Zimbabwe by ten wickets and Waugh made an unbeaten 151, and rolled on through home clean sweeps of Pakistan (3–0) and India (3–0), a 3–0 series win in New Zealand, and a 5–0 whitewash of the West Indies at home — 15 wins in all — before a 16th, in the first Test of the following tour of India at Mumbai, extended the sequence to a world-record 16 consecutive Test wins. The run ended at the very next match, at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, when India followed on 274 behind and, through a fourth-day stand of 376 between VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180), completed one of Test cricket's most famous comebacks. Waugh personally captained 15 of the 16 wins; his deputy Adam Gilchrist led the side to the other, in the West Indies series, while Waugh was out injured. Waugh finished with 41 wins from 57 Tests as captain, a win rate of 72 percent unmatched by any captain with a comparably long tenure — though by sheer number of wins, Ricky Ponting's 48 from 77 Tests is the higher tally.

The innings that (almost) won the 1999 World Cup

Australia stumbled into the 1999 World Cup's Super Six stage needing to win every remaining match to reach the final. In a must-win game against South Africa at Headingley, Waugh was dropped on 56 by Herschelle Gibbs, who threw the ball up in celebration before he had full control of it, and went on to make an unbeaten 120 that effectively eliminated South Africa and sent Australia through. A line supposedly aimed at Gibbs afterwards — "you've just dropped the World Cup, mate" — became cricket folklore, though Waugh himself denied ever saying it in his autobiography. He followed with 56 in the tied semi-final against South Africa, and Australia beat Pakistan by eight wickets in the final.

The career record

Format	Matches	Runs	Average	100s/50s	Top score
Tests	168	10,927	51.06	32/50	200
ODIs	325	7,569	32.90	3/45	120*

Retirement and legacy

Waugh played his last Test at the SCG in January 2004, carried around the ground by his team-mates after Australia beat India, and handed the captaincy to Ricky Ponting. He was named Australian of the Year in 2004 for his cricket and his charity work, awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000, made an Officer of the Order of Australia, named one of the National Trust's 100 Australian Living Treasures, and inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in January 2010. He had already spent years raising money for Udayan, a home for the children of leprosy patients in Barrackpore, near Kolkata, and after retiring he established the Steve Waugh Foundation, which funds support for children with rare and unclassified illnesses. His brother Mark also played 128 Tests for Australia; the pair remain the most-capped sibling combination in Test history.

For the careers of the players who kept the streak alive around him, see Adam Gilchrist, who deputised as captain during Waugh's injury absence, and Ricky Ponting, who succeeded him.