Mark Waugh, that elegant Australian batting legend, has picked an all-time XI where he named Viv Richards, Brian Lara, and Sachin Tendulkar. Not a surprise, but when he was pressed to name the best, he demurred. In the podcast TheOverlapCricket, Waugh held centerstage, telling amusing anecdotes from his career and the talk veered to the players he liked growing up. “I like fast bowlers and aggressive batsmen. Viv Richards was my No.1 player, growing up,” Waugh said. When one of the hosts Alastair Cook (others were David Lloyd, Michael Vaughan and Phil Tufnell) suggested AB de Villiers as he perhaps fitted that aggressive mould, Mark Waugh went, “Tendulkar and Lara”. And a short while later, when Vaughan asked him to pick the greatest batsman he had seen, Waugh went, “Richards, Lara and Tendulkar are my top three. I don’t think I can pick one.” Waugh also placed all the three in his all time XI. He had Lara at No 3, Tendulkar at No.4 and Richards at No.5. Hilarity ensued when Vaughan said where he would place himself (Waugh, that is). “You are not putting yourself in, where would you bat if you play?” Vaughan queried. And Waugh shrugged “no”, before saying I would bat at 4. And Vaughan went, ‘so you getting rid of Sachin!” And Waugh replied with a smile, “no, I didn’t say that!” He was also asked to weigh on who is the better batsman between Steve Smith and Joe Root. And Waugh had no hesitation in choosing Smith. When pressed about Root, he said, “I won’t fear him (Root) if he were playing against us. Not really.” The chat also had him talking about Curtly Ambrose, the best fast bowler he had faced. “Ambrose .. I remember he got me out first ball in a Boxing Day Test. He always bounced me first ball and so I was half-ducking. He has pitched it up, and plumb. You know when Curtly does two appeals in one (wiggling his fingers), you know you are out.”Story continues below this ad And asked about a spinner, he said, “well Murali got me out a few times. Few dodgy ones!” Finally, the best sledge he remembers directed against him, and Mark Waugh picked England’s James Ormond at 2001 Oval Test. “He came out to bat, and I was at silly midoff and said ‘who is this bloke, surely not good enough to be playing Test match cricket. Something like that. And he walked past me and said, “at least I am the best player in my family!”
Tendulkar or Lara or Richards? Who does Mark Waugh pick as his greatest batsman and what was the best sledge against him?
