"I thought all my pantyhoses would be safe since i had four boys. But they all would vanish in a flash. The boys would hang them down the garage roof with cricket balls inside," says Beverly Waugh (above, alongside the posters of her sons), 54.
But Bev, who is in the league of Maratha Grace (mother of W G Grace and E M Grace) and Amir Bee (mother of Wazir, Hanif, Mushthaq and Sadiq Mohammed) never scolded them. She knew her sons Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh were different from most other children in Bankstown, a lower middle class suburb of Sydney.
Sports was in their genes. Bev was the South Australian under-14 women's singles tennis champion. It was love-all for her and Rodger Waugh, who used to play with Australian greats like Tony Roche and Allan Stone, when they first met a tennis court in Sydney.
They were 18 when they got married, and a year later, Bev gave up tennis to look after their newborn twins. Steve was born four minutes earlier than Mark on June 2, 1965. By a coincidence the date of birth matched the last four digits of Bev phone number, XXXX2665.
Hadn't Bev given birth to the boys, the Waugh surname would have ended with Rodger. "We always did the correct thing," jokes Bev. Two more boys, Dean and Danny, followed before she separated from Rodger.
Employed at the eduction department, Bev still lives in Bankstown, where her boys learnt the basics of cricket. Like Steve, who cares for children afflicted by leprosy in India, she displays fellow feeling and teaches handicapped children how to swim. "I don't keep thinking that my boys have done well. Their cricket is just a gift," she says. "I have got these little handicapped children who, if they swim one metre, deserve the same acknowledgement."
The sons have not disappointed her. But the former sensitive skipper of Australia has his mother in him more than his siblings. Just as he cares for his teammates, he feels for the downtrodden and the have nots.
The story of Steve and mark was scripted on the banks of the Georges river where they grew up. Today they have identical houses on the river banks hidden by bushes for privacy. They attended East Hill boys school in Panania, where they now have the cricket nets named after them.
Steve, who has motivated his teammates to a superlative show in the World Cups has also changed the lives of many unfortunate people. One of them is the handicapped Johnna whom he had met eight years ago. Amazed that Johnna who had no legs, could throw a cricket ball far, Steve used to give him tickets cricket matches and a peep into Australian dressing room.
Bev is glad that Steve motivated Johnna into public life. Today, Johnna does a lot of inspirational speaking, writes books, and comes on radio programmes. "Johnna said to me Stephen is the one who inspired him to do it," says Bev.
Steve once took Johnna to the West Indies and he stayed with the team. It was fun times. "Stephen one day carried him to the beach. When the locals stared, Stephen told them, 'A shark has taken his legs'," says Bev. "They would bury Johnna in the sand and get the kids around to dig him out. When they got him out of the sand, Stephen would tell them, 'Hey you have lost his legs, they are still in the sand!'" Steve once put Johnna into David Boons playing kit. Boon had a shock when he opened his coffin-like kit and saw Johnna springing out of it.
Steve always had a sense of humour though he was brought up the hard way. "It was not all easy because there were four children and we had to repay the loan for the house;" says Bev." I knew when they were 15 that they had something special and that if they had the right break they would at least play for New South Wales state team."
She found it difficult to meet their expenses."They wanted only branded bats like Gray Nicolls. And, each time I was buying two of everything," says Bev. So, she took them around looking for sponsorships or at least a price concession. But the manager of bat shop curly told her, "Lady, come back to me when they are playing for the state team."
Finally, a good family friend, Harry Soloman, gave the twins some work -- 15-year-old umpires for indoor cricket. "They took all the abuse from people twice their age who played indoor cricket. They would be there from 6 pm to 12 am in the freezing cold. You know with four boys around the one who got up first was the best dressed. Since Stephen was a little shorter than the rest he would use chewing gum to stick up the folded pants. Sometimes they were not the best dressed cricketers."
While Mark took care in his personal grooming, Steve was casual. They had beaten-up secondhand car to go to school, and every morning Stephen would be slow in getting ready with no hair done. Mark, on the other hand, would be sitting in the car with his hair done and teeth clean," says Bev.
But Steve was more mischievous. "Stephen would get an inspiration to do something and Mark would follow along. But then Mark would just look as guilty as Stephen," says Bev. "Stephen always had a lot of fun and never had any fear. But if a dog was out there Mark would be frightened. If they went on a merry-go-around, Mark would hold on to me."
Once at an amusement part a 6-year -old Mark had climbed up a cliff and stood petrified. "I knew that he was scared," says Bev, who raced to the top in her leather petty-coat, which got torn.
The mother dismiss all talk Steve being a stuck-up person. "When it comes to leading the team or helping children, he just blocks everything else. People say he never smiles but it is not true. He says to me that when he gets down there, 'I have to focus', therefore he comes across as a very serious person," says Bev.
People used to tell Bev that Steve didn't care, he didn't know how to talk. "I used to tell them that you don't have to speak to prove yourself. Your actions will speak for you. He does a lot of work which he never tells any one about."
Once a little boy who was dying of cancer, wanted to meet Steve and also be with his little ginger cat. Ignoring net practice, Steve went to see the boy in the hospital. The boys parents had flown in the cat from South Australia. "Stephen told me that he never felt so proud to be in the company of a cat," says Bev. Steve gave a signed hat which the parents kept on the boy's coffin. "But he never said one word about it to anyone outside."
After the 1998 tour of India, Steve called Bev and others in the family to show the slides he had shot at the village of lepers in Calcutta. "It was 9 pm. He made us sit in his living room and explained the slides one by one," says Bev. Then he said, 'I don't want anyone in this room to complain not having anything material ever again in life'. He was very emotional."
Stephen leads a spartan life and wants children to grow up as a compassionate people. "He doesn't like getting too many material things for himself. That is what draws him to India. India is different for him," says Bev. "He has got stumps with dirt from India. He doesn't want them washed and wants the dirt on it to be left free. He owes his world cup victory to the blessings of the children of the Udyan foundation whom he looks after."
Bev says that his lifting the World Cup was a message for everybody that it is possible for one to be down and out and then lift oneself to impossible heights. "All those children back in India can now celebrate because they had prayed for him to win it. They had sent faxes to him that he can now help them more. His ultimate goal is to eradicate leprosy. And I would want to be with him in India helping him out," says one of cricket's best mothers.
Note: This is an article that I wrote in 2000, when I covered the India-Australia Test series Down Under and later the triangular series involving India-Australia-Pakistan. So it is dated. Thought it's still interesting to read the old stuff!
