Waugh not ready as yet

Knowing just when to say farewell is an exquisitely difficult art for politicians, entertainers and athletes alike. It is the dilemma facing Australia cricket captain Steve Waugh, the current occupant of a post commanding more attention than that of Prime Minister in a sports-obsessed nation.

With conjecture about his future reaching fever pitch, Waugh played one of the most astonishing innings in the history of Test cricket in the final Ashes match against England this month.

Although Australia lost the Test while still winning the series 4-1, Waugh summoned all his nerve, willpower and skill to strike 102 in the first innings with a barrage of cleanly struck boundaries.

"Given all the speculation about my career, it is tempting to say it was my best Test innings," he said. "In terms of my ability to place the ball into the gaps, strike it cleanly and barely play and miss then I would have to rate it highly."

Now Waugh, who turns 38 this year, will take time out to decide if he wants to carry on as national leader for a tour of the Caribbean, or call it a day after his epochal century which equalled Don Bradman's Australian record of 29.

One new challenge already denied Waugh is the chance to lead Australia to consecutive World Cup victories. Dropped from the Australia one-day team last year, he failed to win a place back for the latest one-day tournament starting in southern Africa next month.

Waugh also knows that the traditionally ruthless national selectors have given few Australian captains the luxury of choosing their own moment to leave the stage.

Eighteen years ago, Greg Chappell signed off with a regal 182 in the final Test against Pakistan, a match which also represented the last international appearances for Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh.

Chappell's successors have all experienced messier departures.

Kim Hughes resigned in tears after yet another humiliation at the hands of West Indies while Australian cricket plunged to its lowest level ever in the mid-1980s.

Allan Border, a cricketer every bit as tough as Waugh, turned the Australian team around during 10 years in the top job but never managed a series win against West Indies. He retired in 1994, after a dispute with the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) over the timing of the announcement.

The affable Mark Taylor handed the crown on to Waugh after Australia had at last deposed West Indies as the world's top team in 1994, but only after he had been dropped from the one-day team against his will.

Waugh came into a losing Australian team in the 1985-6 season before he was really ready for the demands of Test cricket.

He clung on to a place partly because of his medium-pace bowling, a vital component in Australia's 1987 World Cup victory, and partly because Border had identified him as one of the players with the character and determination needed to pull his team out of the mire.

Still Waugh travelled to England without a Test century in 1989, an omission he quickly repaired with unbeaten innings of 177 and 152 in the first two Tests. Australia won the series 4-0 to take a grip on the Ashes they have never since relinquished.

"Your first Test hundred is always special and for me it had extra significance as I had been waiting for something like 42 innings for it to come around," Waugh said.

"It was time to deliver, not only for me but for all the Australian side, and I was not the only player in that line-up who knew a bad tour of England could have meant the end of my Test career."

Despite his heroics in England, Waugh was still not the finished article.