Mark Waugh

Mark Waugh (born June 2, 1965, Canterbury, N.S.W., Austl.) is an Australian cricketer who, with his twin brother, Steve, dominated cricket in Australia in the 1990s.

Waugh—known as “Junior,” since he was born four minutes after his twin—broke into the Australian Test team as a replacement for his brother, scoring 138 on his debut in 1990. Although an inventive strokemaker with natural timing, he was at first out too often when well set to be considered a great batsman. A classic innings of 116 made in five hours against South Africa in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) seemed to herald a new stage in Waugh’s career, but a lean spell soon followed—notably on the Ashes tour (Australia’s long-standing Test competition against England)—and he was dropped from both Australia’s Test and One Day International (ODI) teams.

Waugh had returned to both teams by 1992. He earned a reputation as one of the best fielders in the sport, but it was his improved offensive play that garnered the most attention. At the 1996 Cricket World Cup, he scored three centuries (100 runs in a single innings). His image, however, became tainted when it was revealed in 1998 that he and fellow Australian cricketer Shane Warne had taken bribes from an Indian bookmaker four years earlier. (The two were secretly fined by the Australian Cricket Board soon after the bribes were given.) He was a member of Australia’s World Cup-winning team in 1999, and in 2001 he set the all-time record for catches in Test matches (which was since broken in 2009). Waugh retired from Test cricket in 2002 and from the sport entirely in 2004. After his retirement, he worked as a television sports commentator.

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