Aussies show crowd they care for cricket: Waugh
The Australian team made a conscious effort to show their respect for the battered image of cricket in the moments after their comprehensive Test victory over the West Indies here Saturday.
The Australians annihilated the West Indians by an innings and 126 runs to win their 11th consecutive Test and equal the record held by Clive Lloyd's feared West Indians since 1984.
When the last wicket fell Steve Waugh's team went to sections of the Gabba ground applauding football-style the support of the home crowd over the three days of the Test.
"It was a conscious effort, Justin Langer came up with the idea to show our appreciation of the crowd's support," said Waugh.
"We wanted to show them our appreciation because we want to get cricket back on track and have people believing it is still a great game."
Waugh said his team was more aware of its responsibilities to the game, which has been tainted by bribery and match-fixing allegations.
"Cricket is struggling a bit, but the people are still there watching it, which is great, but we want to let them know that we really care about the game, we probably had to show people more than we did before."
Steve's brother, Mark, has been named in an Indian match fixing report as having supplied match information to Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta for cash in 1993.
Five years ago Mark Waugh and Test legspinner Shane Warne admitted taking money from a bookmaker - known as John - in return for providing pitch and weather information.
The Australian Cricket Board fined the pair in early 1995 but covered up the affair until it was disclosed by the media in late 1998.
Waugh has confessed to taking 4,000 US from "John" in Sri Lanka in 1994 but has denied allegations from Gupta - also known by the alias John - that he received 20,000 US in 1993.
It is not known if Gupta and John are in fact the same person and whether the latest allegation is a variation of the incident to which has Waugh previously confessed.
International Cricket Council anti-corruption boss Sir Paul Condon's five-man investigation team will be joined by ACB investigator Greg Melick in London on December 4 and a decision could then be made on whether Waugh will face charges of consorting with an illegal bookmaker.
Mail Cricket Editor
