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On the afternoon of October 15, 1991, I fell in love for the first time.I was six years old and sitting cross-legged on the coarse, carpeted floor of my aunts living room in suburban Melbourne, watching - live and free to air - a 50-over FAI Cup match between New South Wales and Victoria at North Sydney Oval.Two brothers, twins alike in ball-striking ability, were laying waste to a Victorian attack featuring five former, current or future international bowlers and, erm, Paul Jackson, a left-arm orthodox spinner who was keeping a young fella named Shane Warne out of the Victorian side.One brother wielded his bat like a paintbrush. The other wielded his bat like a butchers cleaver. Yet, for reasons that remain a mystery (even to me), it was the latter I fell for. Perhaps it was because, even through the minuscule convex TV screen, I could see the steely glint in his eye, for which he would later become famous. Or maybe I just liked the fact that he appeared to be as fond of playing the cut as I went on to be.His name was Stephen Rodger Waugh.He bludgeoned 126 runs off 133 balls that day. (Twin brother Mark made 112 off 123.) From that day forth, Steve Waugh, as everyone seemed to call him, became my favourite cricketer.In October 1991, he wasnt yet one of Australias National Living Treasures. He wasnt even in the Australian Test XI. He had been dropped the previous summer after a five-year, 42-Test match run in the team as an allrounder batting mainly at six yielded just three hundreds and a batting average of 38.24.He was widely seen, to paraphrase Fitzgerald, as a cricketer who had had advantages at the selection table that others hadnt, and failed to make the most of them.When, through sheer weight of first-class run-scoring, he won a recall to the Australian Test XI the following summer, it was as a No. 3 and the opponents were the cricketing demi-gods of the Calypso Empire that was still in its pomp.His scores in the first two Tests read: 10, 20, 38 and 1.His Test career hung by a thread. Then, over the course of four and a half painstaking hours at the SCG, he ground out an even hundred against a West Indian attack featuring Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop. As a Test batsman, he never looked back, averaging 56.60 in his next 121 Tests, after just 37.14 in his first 47.Earlier that summer another great Australian cricketer had emerged onto the world stage, and it was to him - Melbourne-born and bred - that so many of my fellow Melbournians gravitated. The cherubic legspinner seamlessly assumed the mantle of Great Victorian Hero relinquished by Dean Jones to the era-defining chants of Waarr-nee, Waaaaaar-nee that rang around the G. I respected and admired Shane Warne the bowler, but he wasnt the cricketing hero for me.Warne loved being the centre of attention. He was comfortable there in the spotlight, courting public affection as naturally as a bee gathers pollen; a born showman with a million-dollar smile. He looked as open and at ease with a person hed just met, as he did with his best mate - a trait to admire, but one I knew I could never share.Waugh, on the other hand, seemed quiet, private, studious, thoughtful and impeccably rational. Soon I would receive detailed, written confirmation of my youthful impressions gleaned from afar in a form that is, sadly, now almost alien in this Twitter age: a book, by which I mean a real, self-written work, not the ghost-written copy hurriedly dashed off to the publishers just in time for the holiday season that nowadays passes for a cricketers work. In 1993, Waugh wrote his first book, Steve Waughs Ashes Diary. It sold so well that he authored another ten tour diaries, one book of photographs, and a 720-page, 1.9 kilogram autobiography.The early tour diaries were the best. With no formal leadership responsibilities, Waugh was free to observe, think, wander, explore, photograph and write. As a writer, he was no Ray Robinson, but he wrote lucidly, perceptively, and honestly about the big issues both on and off the field, his approach to the game, tactics, his relationships with team-mates and administrators, and his philosophy towards life in general. Perhaps most importantly of all, unlike so many of the anodyne offerings churned out by professional sportsmen nowadays, he never hesitated to offer an opinion about an important issue, no matter how controversial.It was often the little things that stood out, like his reflection on his first encounter with a local - who said, Hello, Mr Wog. Very well played in 1987, all the best for 96 - upon arriving in India for the 1996 World Cup:Its amazing how one comment can put everything into perspective, and this one did just that for me. Sometimes you forget how much this game can affect people. You take things for granted. But when you realise a guy like this remembers how you performed nine years ago and wants you to do well, even though youre part of a visiting team - thats a very effective reminder that you have an obligation to always give it your best shot. Youre not only playing for yourself and your team, but also for the numerous people out there who care whether you succeed or fail. Passages like that quickly won him an 11-year-olds trust, revealing a person who never forgot, and always fulfilled, his responsibilities, but never allowed himself to be crushed by them. The kind of man any earnest, bookish young boy aspires to be. He never strayed into pretension either, keeping his underrated sense of humour - which ranged from toilet to slapstick to mildly absurdist - firmly intact. The same 1996 World Cup diary containing the passage on responsibility quoted above features: Waugh accidentally crapping his own pants trying to open a jammed bus window; Australian players attacking one another with salt, pepper and weaponised dairy products in the business-class section of a plane; and an Indian newspaper article about a man who lovingly kept a pet cow (She is really good looking and has an exceptional figure) in his eighth floor Calcutta apartment, which Waugh chose to reproduce without comment.Waughs writing, especially in his pre-captaincy days, was so extensive that avid readers like myself felt as if we knew him, even though wed never met him.He was a self-described nerd. He was not gregarious or charismatic like Warne, or a naturally great group communicator like Mark Taylor, although he was good friends with both. He placed great value in friendship, which, much like Test runs and wickets, was something he thought had to be earned, but once earned, brought with it attendant obligations of loyalty, trust and confidence, which must never be betrayed.He was more comfortable in the company of a few close friends than in large groups. Unlike more than a few Australian cricketers at the time, he was curious about the cultures of the foreign lands that the Australian team visited, and instead of bunkering down in his hotel room with a tin of baked beans and a stack of videos, he spent most of his free time on tours exploring the local surrounds in the company of one or two team-mates or journalists who shared his curiosity.He was an excellent, empathetic one-on-one communicator and an astute observer of not just society but individuals too, always being the first to support a team-mate or friend who was down. He practised the precept that Josh Lyman set out - he comforted his friends in times of difficulty and he celebrated with them in times of triumph. When, in the midst of a form slump, Warne announced his premature retirement to his team-mates during the 1999 World Cup, Waugh went on a long, heartfelt walk with him.Waugh had a clear idea of how to prepare himself in order to extract the maximum number of runs from himself for the benefit of his team. He knew how to get the best out of his team-mates too. His unconventional policy of trusting tailenders and not shepherding the strike produced a fount of lower-order partnership runs for Australia, and he had a knack of compiling of series-turning partnerships with greenhorns, such as the 385 runs with Greg Blewett at the Wanderers in 1997.He had an instinctive feel for the ebb and flow of a game of cricket and the mental acuity to know how and when to intervene tactically in order to maximise Australias chances of winning. The unexpected and successful deployment of Warne as a pinch-hitter early in Australias chase of an imposing 287 for victory in their 1996 World Cup quarter-final was Waughs idea - Warne slogged 24 off 14 balls and Australia won with 13 balls to spare. Waugh was always trying to think of ways to improve Australias chances of winning a game, even where that meant increasing the risk of losing.He was a good judge of character - both on and off the cricket field - which, combined with his cricketing knowledge and experience, gave him a close to flawless ability to judge whether a cricketer could succeed at Test level.All these things we knew from reading his early tour diaries.Thus, when his critics - who remained present, if not plentiful, throughout the second half of the 90s, even as he established himself as one of the worlds pre-eminent batsmen and captains - unfairly criticised him, I bristled and not only wanted to defend him, but felt as if I knew what to say.Initially, though, it was his weaknesses, not his strengths, that manifested themselves in his captaincy tenure. No longer one of the boys, Waugh found that the lines of communication to his troops were now garbled and, lacking Taylors gifts of group speak, he was unable to repair them on his own. Australia nearly lost the Frank Worrell Trophy and successive group-stage defeats to New Zealand and Pakistan at the 1999 World Cup left them on the brink of early elimination and Waugh on the verge of being sacked as one-day captain.Then, at that turning point in modern Australian cricket history, his strengths, which I had read about for so many years in his books, started coming to the fore - the veteran allrounder Tom Moody, who Waugh had personally asked the selectors to include in Australias World Cup squad, re-established good lines of communication with the rank and file and contributed valuable quick runs and wickets; Warne, who Waugh had backed throughout a tournament-long form slump, came good at the business end; and Waugh himself took personal responsibility for his teams fate, scoring a team-best 398 runs at 79.60 for the tournament as Australia went unbeaten for seven consecutive matches to win their first World Cup since 1987.That victory proved to be the watershed moment in Waughs captaincy. Soon, all the virtues that wed seen in his diaries manifested themselves in his captaincy and, by the time he retired in January 2004, Steve Waugh was, and forever will be, one of Australias favourite cricketers. But, he was mine first. Saucony Clearance .25 million option on reliever Jose Veras. Saucony Shoes Sale . Aaron Harrison scored a 22 points for Kentucky (6-1), which has won four in a row following a Nov. 12 loss to current No. 1 Michigan State. Julius Randle overcame a scoreless first half and added his sixth double-double in as many games with 14 points and 10 rebounds. http://www.wholesalesauconyaustralia.com/ . Listen to the game live on TSN Radio 1050 at 7pm et. The Raptors traded Rudy Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray to the Sacramento Kings on Monday, in exchange for Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes. Buy Saucony Shoes . Instead of dwelling on the negative, Oates focused on what was good about the clubs recent play. It worked. Saucony Shoes Australia . Carey Price didnt, but he still came out on top against one of his rivals for the No. 1 job at the Sochi Games. The Anahim Lake, B.C., native was stellar in making 39 saves in his home province and Lars Eller got credit for a bizarre short-handed winner as the Canadiens defeated the Canucks 4-1. DALLAS -- Mikey Garcia quickly got over the disappointment of losing his crown. Garcia stopped Juan Manuel Lopez in the fourth round Saturday night, leaving the WBO featherweight title vacant after Garcia failed to make weight. Garcia (32-0) weighed in at 128 pounds Friday, two over the featherweight limit. Lopez weighed in at 125 1/2. Even though he tried to shed a couple pounds before the weigh-in, Garcia knew it was likely he was going to have to forfeit his title. "The disappointment was there because I lost my title," Garcia said. "I was crying a little bit because I knew I wasnt the champion. But everybody got a chance to see Im a good fighter. This was a satisfying victory." Garcia put Lopez on the ground with a strong left-handed blow 1:34 into the fourth round for his 27th career knockout. The 25-year-old Californian connected on 53 punches -- 40 of them jabs. Lopez connected on only 23 of 153 attempted punches. Lopez (33-3) would have regained the title with a win. "Its not that I wanted to make a statement," Garcia said. "We just had a really good night." Garcia won the title from Orlando Salido in a unanimous decision in New York on Jan. 19. The title reign, however, was short-lived after Garcia didnt make weight. The only two losses of Lopezs career were to Salido. The first one cost him the WBO belt, and the second led to a one-year suspension by Puerto Rican boxing offiicials when he accused the referee who stopped the fight of betting on the match.dddddddddddd Lopez had won twice since his one-year ban ended, beating Aldimar Silva Santos in February and knocking out Eugenio Lopez in an undercard bout in Mexico City in April. Garcias plan was to attack early with the jab and step back from Lopez before attacking. With a majority of fans chanting his first name early, Garcia came out and landed a series of jabs in the first round. In the second round, Garcia knocked Lopez down with a right cross. Lopez quickly rose to his feet and completed the round. Garcia finished off the 29-year-old Lopez two rounds later. "I was able to land my jab and stand pretty comfortable," Garcia said. "When I knocked him down, that gave me confidence that I could put him out early." Lopez appeared wobbly early in the fourth after Garcia landed a combination of punches. Garcia finished him off with a powerful left hook. Lopez slowly got up and referee Rafael Ramos quickly called the match. "We executed perfectly" said Garcias older brother and co-trainer, Robert Garcia. On the undercard, Terence Crawford (21-0) won the vacant NABO lightweight title, stopping Alejandro Sanabria (34-2-1) in the sixth round. Crawford dropped Sanabria with a left hook 17 seconds into the round. Sanabria got up, but the referee called the fight to give Crawford his 16th knockout victory. ' ' '