It was if time was standing still as the past, present and future of New South Wales andAustralian cricket were fused at the crease in the recent NSW vs QueenslandPura Cup match

David Wiseman12-Mar-2003It was if time was standing still as the past, present and future of New South Wales andAustralian cricket were fused at the crease in the recent NSW vs QueenslandPura Cup match.It was the final match of the season and NSW with an 80-rundeficit on the first innings needed to win to make it to the final.Always the man for the occasion, Steve Waugh played a vintage knock,reminiscent of his more famous one only two months earlier at the same venueagainst England.Waugh wound back the clock as he bludgeoned the Queensland attack intosubmission and turned the first innings deficit into a handy lead. It wasthe first time he had made a century on the Sydney Cricket Ground against Queensland.It was 18 years earlier in a game against Queensland that Waugh made hisname. Waugh actually made his first-class debut in a game against Queenslandat the Gabba but it was the 1984/85 Shield final where he came of age.After Queensland scored 374 in the first innings, Waugh batting at No 8 came to the crease with NSW at a perilous six for 223 which shortly becameseven-down when Imran Khan went. The 19-year-old Waugh, batting with a maturityway beyond his years, led the tail to take NSW to 318. He made 21 in thesecond innings as NSW went on to win the final by one wicket, the only timethe Shield has been won in the last session of the season.That game metamorphised Waugh from an unknown into a player who could leadAustralia out of their doldrums. He had performed on the national stageagainst the national captain and it would be less then a year before hewould be representing his country.Notwithstanding brief times when he has been dropped or when he has beeninjured, this has been the first time in nearly a score of years that Waugh has beena regular for NSW. For him it would have been a case of ‘Back to the Future’as he got another taste of what it’s like to be a first-class cricketer inAustralia. It’s a unique situation which Waugh finds himself in. Playerslike Border and Boon devoted themselves to winning the Shield only afterthey had retired from international cricket.Waugh finds himself in a position to win the Shield late in his career, notas a bit player but rather a key cog in the machine. Most internationalplayers try to return to first-class cricket after their Test career isover. Now because Waugh has been dropped from the one day team and has spentthe better part of the season with the Blues, when he finally does decide tohang up the boots, whether or not he decides to play first-class cricket forNSW won’t be an issue.Playing Pura Cup cricket for the last two months has honed Waugh’s skillsand he should be the first player selected for the tour of West Indies.Based on what he saw from the vantage point of 22 yards away, Waugh wouldn’tmind if Michael Clarke was selected.Waugh had the best seat in the house whilst Clarke was putting on a battingclinic. Right from the start, he displayed shots of the highest quality andwas equally merciless on all the Queensland bowlers. This was no popgunattack, rather the leading one in Australia. Granted they were weakened bythe absence of Adam Dale and Joe Dawes and an injured Lee Carseldine but inMichael Kasprowicz and Ashley Noffke they possessed two of the leadingwicket-takers for the year.Michael Clarke is the type of cricketer that Steve Waugh loves and loves tohave in his team as he is the full package. An aggressive batsman, a shrewdpart-time bowler, a magnificent fielder with a cannon-like arm, silky handsand an intelligent cricket brain.Clarke could slot right into the Australian side now and is the type ofcricketer who has the rest of the world bemused as to how this countrykeeps producing players of the highest calibre.The Pura Cup final is a five-day game and has a Test match feel to it. Theintensity and passion displayed in finals past is testament to how much isat stake.In Australian sport, there is no rivalry like the one which exists betweenNSW and Queensland. Cricket has done its fair share in fuelling this rivalryand will do so again as the two lock horns to decide who is the bestprovincial cricket team in Australia, if not the world.The game will be contested fiercely as one. NSW will go into the game asunderdogs. Queensland are playing on their beloved Gabba and gunning fortheir fourth straight championship whilst NSW will be looking to break theirnine-year drought.Only two sides have ever won a Shield away from home. NSW won the firstfinal at the WACA in 1982/83 and Queensland also won at the WACA in 1996/97.Which statistic will give – that NSW has never lost a final to Queensland orthat Queensland has never lost a final at home?The Bulls have not lost a game to their southern rivals since a fullstrength NSW defeated Queensland by eight wickets in November 1993.NSW have the big name players in the two Waughs, Slater, MacGill and Katich.The Blues have been fortunate in that the players have been spreading theload. In Sydney, it was Steve Waugh, Clarke, Nash, Katich and MacGill whocontributed. At the WACA, it was Mail, Slater, Mark Waugh and Clark who roseto the occasion.Queensland used to benefit greatly from the fact that their players werejust on the fringe of Australian selection. Now Andrew Bichel, AndrewSymonds, Matthew Hayden, Nathan Hauritz and Jimmy Maher are all in SouthAfrica which depletes the Queensland side.It was the experiences of that 84/85 final which helped transform Steve Waughinto a hardened cricketer. But for a win over India in the sub-continent, hehas achieved everything there is to do in the game and leading NSW to statesupremacy after such a long drought will be another jewel he can add to atruly glittering career.