Why not Waugh??

Sir Garfield Sobers is the latest entrant into the septuagenarians club. And the world media didnt miss the opportunity to highlight the exploits of the first Six Sixers man and how he made a lesser known mortal called Malcolm Nash famous (or infamous!!) overnight. Almost all the writers who showered praise on Sir Garry delineated the fact that the world will never see an all round cricketer like Sir Garry for a long long time. Indeed true.. His records are mind boggling. 8000 odd test runs at an average of 57 plus and 235 wickets at 34 apiece. Add to this the 109 catches that he held, mostly at slips - He is a clear leader among the multi-dimensional cricketers who have played this game.

Whenever the talk revolves around all-rounders, the names that crop up are Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Sir Richard Hadlee, Sanath Jayasuriya, Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Andrew Flintoff and of late, our own Irfan Pathan. But one name that all experts miss out is Stephen Rodger Waugh. This former captain of the Kangaroos is considered to be among the most successful captains in Test History, has amassed more than 18000 International runs, taken nearly 300 International Wickets and held more than 200 catches inclusive of Tests and ODIs.

"Ice Cool Man" was how Steve Waugh was called for his tremendous composure to bowl overs at the death. But injuries in the later stages of his career didn't allow him to roll his arm over as frequently as he would have liked to. If only he had bowled as regularly as the aforementioned players did, who knows where he would have ended up in the wickets list!!

Nevertheless, I strongly feel that, even with this record with the bat and ball, he deserves to be called a genuine all-rounder and will only add sheen to the relatively short list of "The Greatest All-Rounders of Cricket".