`The iceman’ hides a blazing fire within

LONDON, JUNE 21: In Retrospect, it was the most extraordinary thing said during the 1999 cricket World Cup. Perhaps it was the most extra...

LONDON, JUNE 21: In Retrospect, it was the most extraordinary thing said during the 1999 cricket World Cup. Perhaps it was the most extraordinary thing ever said on a cricket pitch. Period.

South African Herschelle Gibbs had just blundered horribly, letting a catch off Steve Waugh slip through his fingers at Headingley as he attempted to fling the ball into the air in celebration.

Waugh, with 56 runs to his name, knew he had been given a slim, second chance to save his side’s floundering World Cup hopes in the last game before the semifinals.

Story continues below this ad

He turned to Gibbs, one of the best fielders in the world, and told the 25-year-old: “You’ve just dropped the World Cup, son.”

A couple of hours later Waugh had scored 120 and Australia were still in the competition, earning themselves a South African re-match in the last four.A week later and Waugh was holding aloft the World Cup trophy on the Lord’s balcony.

Waugh’s prescient words at Headingley leaked out later.

Whether they had been designed toundermine Gibbs’ confidence further or merely bolster Waugh’s resolve is hard to say.

Whether Waugh really believed them himself is debatable.

The Australian captain, so often presented as impervious to pressure, admitted he is not quite `the iceman’ — as he was nicknamed after the 1987 World Cup.

Story continues below this ad

After scraping through to Lord’s via the tied semifinal against South Africa at Edgbaston, he had admitted that his side has cracked several times under pressure. “Three or four times we were down and out,” he said. “We’re only human.” Whatever. It still takes an extraordinary confidence and self belief to think of saying what Waugh had said to Gibbs in Leeds. Few men would dare tempt fate so far. But then, Waugh had been as bold three weeks before, after losing to Pakistan, again at Headingley, in the first round.

His team had lost for the second time in their three opening matches and were teetering on the brink of elimination. Waugh, his future on the line and with the critics gathering, responded:“We are capable of winning our next seven games on the trot and that would win us the crown.”

It seemed an absurdly brazen thing to say. But, in retrospect, he was right.

Tragedy in triumph for Waugh twins

SYDNEY: The joy of the Waugh twins at winning cricket’s World Cup turned to sadness today when their beloved grandfather died. Edward, 89, died within hours of Australia winning cricket’s biggest prize.

Story continues below this ad

Steve and Mark Waugh had vowed to win the Cup for their ailing `pop’. “I’ve just heard from the boys and they’re very upset,” Rodger Waugh, father of the twins told reporters. When Mark Waugh scored a century against Zimbabwe in an earlier round match he dedicated it to his grandfather, who `hasn’t missed a ball in the boy’s first class cricketing career over the past 12 or 13 years.’