Steve Waugh Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rodger

His middle name is the same as his father's name. Steven Rodger Waugh was born four minutes before his fraternal twin brother, who was named Mark Edward (sharing his middle name with their paternal grandfather).

Their younger siblings Dean (who also represented Australia) and Danny (who played cricket for the Sydney University Cricket Club) also joined a family tradition of sporting achievement. Their mother and father had both been successful tennis players, and their father had experienced success in Rugby League before he had to retire to take care of their mother, who had contracted polio.

Answer: Tugger

Officially, this is said to be a reference to the fact that he is a great team member in a close match which is turning into a tug-of-war. One suspects a somewhat cruder locker room origin. He was also nicknamed Ice Man, because of his reputation for coolness under pressure. It has been said by a number of cricket fans (including me!) that while Mark Waugh was by far the more graceful to watch batting, if you needed someone to make a score to save your house, the choice would be Steve.

Punter was Ricky Ponting's nickname, Junior was Mark Waugh, and Gilly was Adam Gilchrist.

Answer: A red rag

The red rag originated as a red handkerchief, carried to wipe sweat from his face while batting. It became a lucky talisman (not that cricket players are superstitious), and he carried the tattered rag through his last match. At that match, against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January of 2004, promoters gave all the fans red handkerchiefs to wave in tribute as they watched him play his last innings.

He reached a score of 80, his highest for the season, and enough to secure a draw for the Australians (after Tendulkar had smashed 241 not out, making a win out of the question). Sadly, they had needed a win to retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy, which returned to Indian hands.

Answer: New South Wales

He was born and grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, and (along with his twin brother Mark) started serious competitive cricket at a young age. The twins represented Bankstown Under-10s when they were eight, and moved on up through the age divisions, playing for the seniors team at 14. Shortly after finishing high school they were selected for the national under-19 squad, and joined the New South Wales squad the following year.

Steve made his First Class debut in the 1984-85 season, primarily as a medium pace bowler - he batted at 9 (a spot in the batting order reserved for the bowlers). In that year's Sheffield Shield final he scored 71 runs, helping NSW to victory.

Answer: Steve

Steve played his first Test match in the 1985-6 season, debuting in the Melbourne Test. It was not a spectacular debut - he scored 13 runs in the first innings, and 5 in the second, while posting bowling figures of 2/36. He did retain his spot, and his performance improved, but remained inconsistent in the Test arena. In 1991 he was dropped from the team for the Adelaide Test. In a television interview, he recalled the phone call in which he got the news. He returned to join the family and informed them first of the good news - Mark was being called up to the Australian team. When Mark asked who he was replacing, Steve answered, "Me."

During the 1991 tour of the Caribbean, Steve rejoined the side, and the Waugh brothers became the first twins to play together in a test match.

Answer: True

His debut in 1985 was against India, in a match played at the Melbourn Cricket Ground. His final match was in 2004, in a match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. India was to be his nemesis during his test career, especially as captain, because the team performed poorly when touring there, despite having a period of massive success against other nations.

In the 2001 tour of India, Australia accumulated a lead of 274 after having batted first, and enforced the follow on. This means they required the Indian team to bat again, instead of taking their turn in alternation. This tactic is intended to place pressure on the team which had performed so poorly in their first effort, and improve the leading team's chance of winning - they will bat last, and know their target, instead of having to decide when the lead is enough so that they can declare and try to get the other team out before play finishes. Unfortunately, VVC Laxman scored 281, Raul Dravid scored 180, and the Australians had to try to score 384 on the last day. They failed to do so, and became the third team in the history of test cricket to lose after enforcing a follow-on.

Answer: 200

The * after a batter's score indicates that they were not out - play ended while they were still at the crease. When batting averages are calculated, the number of runs scored is divided by the number of times they were out, rather than the number of times they batted, so a not out score makes an excellent contribution to a player's statistics.

Steve Waugh scored 200 against the West Indies at Jamaica in 1995. He batted for 9 hours and took a number of hits on his body in the process. (This was at the time when the Windies had one of the most feared pace attacks in the game.) He had compiled a partnership of 231 with his brother before Mark was out for 126.

Steve Waugh scored 120 not out in a One Day International match against South Africa at Headingly during the 1999 ICC World Cup (which Australia went on to win). His highest score in a Sheffield Shield match was 216 not out, against Western Australia at Perth in 1990.

Brian Lara scored 400 not out in 2004 in a match between the West indies and England played in Antigua. This was the first time that the record for highest score in test matches was recaptured - Lara had been the record holder for ten years, with 375, before it was taken by Australian Matthew Hayden (380) in 2003.

Answer: Jason Gillespie

It was the Victorian Jason Gillespie whose shin collided with Steve's face while they were both trying to make a catch in Kandy. Gillespie's leg was broken, and he was out of cricket for over a year. Waugh's nose was broken (producing blood that emphasized the drama of the clash), but he managed to play again in the next match.

Unfortunately, the Australians lost the match, and the other matches in the series were drawn, so the series was lost.

Answer: 5 for 28

Bowling scores are given in Australia starting with the number of wickets taken (batters dismissed), followed by the number of runs scored. Since an innings involves the taking of ten wickets, a 'five for' is considered an excellent return. The bowler is often given the ball that was being used to take home as a souvenir. Steve Waugh did this three times during his career, despite being known in the later stages more for his batting than his bowling.

Waugh's third five wicket haul came when he took 5 for 28 in the second innings of the Cape Town Test against South Africa in 1994. This included the prize wickets of Hanse Cronje (caught and bowled) and Andrew Hudson, part of a batting collapse that helped Australia manage a win in a match that had looked to be destined to be a draw.

Answer: England

The streak started with a home series against Pakistan, which had a 3-0 result - as did the second series that summer against India. This was followed by a tour of New Zealand which again yielded a score line of 3-0. (The One Day International matches during the summer did have a few lost matches, but both the triangular fixture against India and Pakistan and the series against New Zealand were series victories for the Australians.)

The following summer the West indies toured Australia, leading to a 5-0 whitewash. Steve Waugh missed the third test from injury, but stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist kept the winning streak alive. This was followed by a triangular ODI series with the West indies and Zimbabwe, before a tour to India. there Australia won the first test in Mumbai, before losing the second test in Kolkata, the match that involved a somewhat controversial decision to enforce a follow-on.