 The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) dropped a bombshell in the international cricket fraternity when it announced the sacking of captain Steve Waugh not only from the captaincy, but also from squad.
"Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh has been stripped of the captaincy of the national one-day side,'' the ACB website said. "There is no news yet on who will replace Waugh as captain of the one-day side.'' The media release from the ACB said: "Stephen Waugh will not be selected in the Australian one-day international team to tour South Africa and Zimbabwe in March. The decision to omit Waugh from the one-day team was taken by the National Selection panel of Trevor Hohns (Chairman), Allan Border, David Boon and Andrew Hilditch." Hohns said the new captain would not be named until the one-day squad for the South African tour was chosen within a week. Current vice-captain Adam Gilchrist and former vice-captains Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting are seen as possible frontrunners to replace Waugh even as Australia prepare to defend the 2003 World Cup to be held in South Africa. Waugh, 36, is Australia's seniormost player in terms of matches having played 323 one-dayers. Only India's Mohammed Azahruddin has played more international one-dayers than Waugh. Waugh had led his team to victory in the in the 1999 World Cup final, and has expressed his desire to captain the side at the next World Cup more than once. However, he has recently faced a media backlash over Australia's failure to qualify for the finals of the triangular VB Series involving New Zealand and South Africa. Waugh's reaction
Steve Waugh said that he was disappointed by the decision but would be working to regain his place in the team. "Of course, this is an extremely disappointing decision. The challenge for me is to now ensure that the Australian Test team wins the series against South Africa and to play well enough to force my way back into the one-day team," said Waugh. The media release quoted Hohns as saying: "Making this decision has been extremely difficult and it is not one that anyone likes but as selectors our responsibility is to pick what we believe to be the best side for Australia. We believe that there are now players ahead of Steve for one-day selection." Waugh's record
Waugh has captained Australia in 106 limited-overs matches with 67 wins, 35 losses, three ties and one no-result. Only six players have led their country more often in one-day cricket. With the bat, Waugh's 7569 runs at 32.90 is the second highest aggregate by an Australian player, eclipsed only by his brother Mark, who has 8500 runs at 39.35 from 244 matches. Stephen also has 195 wickets to his credit in one-day internationals, leaving him 18th on the list of all-time leading wicket-takers in that form of the game. Of Australians, only Shane Warne (268) and Glenn McGrath (226) are ahead of him. Waugh also has two World Cup winning medals to his credit, first as part of Border's side that beat England in Calcutta in 1987, then as captain when he led the team to a final win over Pakistan at Lord's in 1999.
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