When Steve Waugh loved the hated phenomenon of losing!

Vikram Vishal
(Chief Sports Editor)

Nobody likes losing. Actually, we hate it, particularly if it’s a game.

But there is an instance when Australia’s World Cup winning captain Stephen Rodger Waugh, who played cricket consistently for his country since the tour of India in August 1985 and ended it with Team India’s Down Under visit in 2003-2004, loved this hated phenomenon.

Having started his international career against India and then beating all the Test playing nations in their own backyard, except his debut opponent, Steve always visited this country with more determination to win (and conquer the Final Frontier) than any of his foreign tours.

However, the tour of 1998 turned out to be a ‘catalyst’ for his involvement in charity work, a development that the former Sydney cricketer termed as “very much a turn of fate.”

In his autobiography ‘Out of My Comfort Zone,’ Steve says he is “forever grateful” for losing the 1998 Kolkata Test, that too in just four days, at Eden Gardens, a ground which he calls the ‘Lord’s of the Subcontinent’.

The comprehensive defeat at the hands of India ensured, directly or indirectly, that his life would never be the same again.

On his return to the hotel room after the defeat with a day to spare, Steve found a letter pushed under his doors. It was neither from an autograph seeker nor a request for a donation, not even someone asking him to sponsor a family to Australia. It was this piece of paper that kicked off his journey to Udyan-- a Barrackpore-based rehabilitation home for children whose parents suffer form leprosy.

The next morning (March 22, 1998), which otherwise would have been the final day of the Test had the match lasted for that long, Steve, accompanied by the lady who wrote that letter, drove to Udyan located on the outskirts of the City of Joy. It did not take him long to realise that it was a lifetime task he wanted to be a part of.

And, he immediately saw his role as being the “vehicle” through which funds could more readily be accessed through sponsors, donations, fundraising evenings and personal endorsements.

The letter not only proved to be a big turning point for Udyan, it also helped a ‘professional’ cricketer shape into the ‘person’ he is today and gave direction where he is heading.

Steve recalls, “I’m forever grateful that we lost that Test back in 1998-- not because of losing, but because we did it with a day to spare.”

Whatever happens, happens for good! Right Mr. Waugh?

Belated Happy Birthday!