- Steve Waugh, the mastermind behind Australia's golden age of cricket dominance, takes us on a trip through India, exploring the rich diversity of cultures and searching for the true spirit of cricket.
- Steve Waugh is one of the most successful cricket captains in the history of the game. He led the Australian team throughout the 90's and the early 2000s. Under his captaincy, Australia dominated the game across the world.
Waugh was always captivated by India. Waugh wanted to experience the real India and could never really do that on official tours. So, 16 years after retirement, Steve heads back to India. This time he brings a camera instead of a cricket bat. His ambition is to create a photo book to capture India's love for the game. He has his cricket buddies (Including Lisa Sthalekar, Trent Parke (Photography expert and winner of 4 world press awards), Jason Brooks (cricket enthusiast and first timer to India)) with him, and 9 cities to fully immerse himself in. Dharamshala, Delhi, Mathura, Agra, Jodhpur, Vadodara, Mumbai, Bangaluru and Kolkata. Steve wants to capture the impact of cricket on the daily lives of the people. To understand why cricket is a religion.
This is the 40th time Steve has touched down in Mumbai. Home to 19 million people, which is close to the total population of Australia. Steve visits the Oval Maidan and the Azad Maidan where people congregate to play cricket. Every inch of land is taken, and dozens of matches go on concurrently in an area of 2-3 football fields. They are a breeding ground for Indian superstars like Sachin Tendulkar, who played all of his early cricket at the Maidans. At Azad Maidan, Steve meets a young female cricketer and shares some batting tips with her. She touches his feet after asking his name and realizing that he was the Australian Cricket Captain.
Dravid says that while British invented it, but the game was meant to be played by Indians. Photography suits Steve as he was always a man of few words. He is married to Lynette Waugh. Steve first came to India in 1986, on his first tour, and he was 21 years old. He came from a small suburb of Panania. The Waugh twins only played sports growing up. India was a total culture shock for him. Loud, full of people, and animals, and no personal space. For generations, many Australian cricketers did not prefer to tour India, as it was considered to be a tough tour. Steve was able to look beyond that stereotype and explore the cities he went to. It was Steve who help his own teammates to see that India was all about passion for cricket and cricketers.
In the present day, he visits Dharavi, Asia's largest slum. Steve plays a game of cricket with the locals. Next, the team travels to Vadodara. Maharaja of Vadodara has India's largest private residence, the Lakshmi Vilas Palace. Maharaja SamajitSinh Gaekward III resides in the palace with his family. They play cricket in the palace corridor with a lot of very breakable and irreplaceable items. 2 50-year-old gents went about playing the game as if they were 10-year-olds. No matter who you are, its not hard to find someone for a game of Cricket in India.
Steve visits an academy for disabled cricketers. The nation comes together for cricket. Next is Bengaluru. It is home to the Blind Cricket Association of India. The basics of the game are the same, but the bowlers bowl underarm and have to shout out first. Ball has to pitch before halfway and bounce once more before it reaches the batsman. There are 3 categories B1 (100% blind), B2 (4 meters of sight), B3 (6 meters sight). Every team must have at least 4 B1s.
Steve is given tapes googles to make him a B1, and he couldn't hit anything. Steve was sledged on the field by blind cricketers. Next, they go back to Mumbai to photograph the oldest living cricketer in India, Vasant Raiji. He brings Tendulkar along with him. Tendulkar describes Steve as methodical, competitive and fair.
For Steve, playing cricket was easy. It was everything around it, that was hard. The media, public appearances and being available to anyone at any time, was something that Steve never prepared for. Steve was not comfortable being famous. Mark Waugh was the exact opposite and very comfortable speaking in front of large audiences.
The Team travels to Delhi. It is the birthplace of the current top Indian cricketer, Virat Kohli. Kohli represents India's new attitude of not being intimidated or ever backing down. Kohli has taken Indian cricket to another level, and he has the crowds behind him. He brought the aggressive brand of cricket to India. IPL brought Bollywood and celebrities into cricket, and lots of money. Steve visits the Croire Cricket Club to meet an 8-year-old boy named Shayan Jamal, tipped to take the cricketing world by storm in due time. Steve watches him practice and advises Shayan not to open up his bat too much and to keep playing straight. India's youth today is now backed up by a system and opportunity to make dreams possible.
Next to Kolkata. Steve sees the old-world colliding with the new world. Everyone has mobile phones in their hands. This means talent can be discovered anywhere. He meets a 3-year-old prodigy named Sahib, who is a social media sensation. 10-20 years ago, nobody would know that any such talent existed.
Steve retired in 2004, after his final series which was against India. It is really hard to stop leading when you are a leader. But you need a break from the relentless competitiveness of the game.
Next the group travels to Dharamsala. He finds a team of monks playing cricket in Himachal Pradesh and enjoys a day of cricket with them. The next stop is Agra. He gets the photo of people playing cricket in front of the Taj Mahal, but Taj was shrouded in fog and Steve could not get his picture. At Mathura, Steve finds a group of people playing cricket in the middle of a pile of garbage, next to the river Ganga. The neighbors allow Steve into their home, so he can climb to the roof to get his shots. People in India love cricket, because it is fun. All you need is a bat and a ball and some imagination, and away you go.
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