In 1988, a young Steve Waugh single-handedly shored up a Somerset batting line-up that was otherwise the weakest in the division. His performances that year made him a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
Steve Waugh came of age as a Test cricketer when he returned to England for the 1989 Ashes series. He went on to become one of Australia’s greatest captains. In 168 Test matches, he scored 10,927 runs at 51.06. He also played in 325 ODIs, hitting 7,569 runs at 32.90.
In the history of Somerset cricket, there has perhaps not been a more serious controversy than that which involved Viv Richards, Joel Garner and Ian Botham in the winter of 1986/87. Whatever the merits of their case, the feuding had to be stopped, the bad blood dissolved, and the West’s worst dispute since the Monmouth rebellion laid to rest. In the summer of 1987 this was largely done when Martin Crowe batted as a highly impressive overseas player, and Somerset enjoyed a moderate yet substantial revival.
This progress continued until the morning of June 1, 1988. Crowe, after a long overnight drive from Old Trafford, where he had played another match-winning innings, woke up in Southampton to find that his back had given way. He had already hit two first-class centuries and Somerset’s young, frail batting remained as dependent upon him as ever.
This back trouble, involving stress fractures of the spine, ruled Crowe out for the rest of the season at almost exactly the time Botham was admitting to the same complaint. Somerset would have been in serious trouble if they had found themselves without a top overseas player; the whole controversy had, after all, turned upon Crowe and his future with the county. Most fortunately for them, Stephen Waugh came instantly to their rescue.
Waugh hit two centuries during the Bath Festival and never looked like doing otherwise. His 161 against Kent at Canterbury helped to give Somerset a startling innings victory over the Championship leaders. In general he found English pitches agreeably similar to those at the Sydney Cricket Ground; in fact, the lower the better, for the later he can play.
“Steve relishes responsibility in a way which an Englishman of his age wouldn’t,” said his new county captain, Vic Marks. “He plays his one-day innings so that he is in for the last five overs, and he expects to bowl ‘at the death’.” Somerset, unsurprisingly, are eager for Waugh to return in 1990. By then they are expecting him to have succeeded Allan Border as the foremost Australian batsman of his generation.
