Mark Waugh on player power, his old mate Warnie and how the Aussies will fare this summer

Test cricket great Mark Waugh has opened up about the shock of losing Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds and weighed in on who will win during this summer of cricket.

Mark Waugh says it was a bittersweet experience reuniting with his Fox Cricket colleagues ahead of the coming summer of cricket.

The tight-knit team of former players and pundits suffered a double loss this year, with the sudden and untimely deaths of Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds within the space of three months.

“It’s going to be a very different summer in the commentary box,” says Fox Cricket expert Waugh, who played 128 Test matches and 244 One Day Internationals for Australia between 1988 and 2002.

“Two great Fox Sports commentators and two great mates as well, more importantly. They are guys that the bulk of the commentary team played a lot of cricket with and spent a lot of time with over the years so to lose them both so close together was a big shock to all of us. They are going to be sorely missed, there’s no doubt about it. We will move on, but we will obviously respect them and remember them at certain times during the summer for sure.”

Waugh was in the Test team when the 23-year-old Warne made his inauspicious Test debut in 1992 – and was carted around the Sydney Cricket Ground, finishing with figures of 1-150.

He says he struggles to pick just one defining memory of the spin wizard with whom he shared so much cricket from a young age and was a teammate in one of the most dominant outfits ever to have played the game.

Foxtel commentators and former teammates Mark Waugh, left, and Andrew Symonds. Picture: Toby Zerna

“I remember his first Test Match in Sydney where he didn’t have a lot of success but he went on to become one of the greatest bowlers of all time,” Waugh says.

“There are lots of great memories on the field, we had a lot of success with that team through the era that Shane was playing and lots of good fun off the field on the golf course or in the casino or whatever.”

Waugh says the game has changed a lot since he played his last international game two decades ago – and not just on the field.

He admits to being a bit perplexed by the current player-power movement that recently led to Netball Australia parting ways with sponsor Hancock Prospecting and also saw Australian Test and ODI cricket captain Pat Cummins decline to appear in any promotional material for then sponsor Alinta Energy, citing concerns over fossil fuels and climate change.

The $40 million partnership between the energy company and Cricket Australia ended not long afterwards.

“In our day, we just played the game,” says Waugh.

“We didn’t even think about who was sponsoring us, or who was coaching us, we just got on with the job. But times have changed and there is much more awareness about all these sorts of things with social media and all the advertising. I’m not going to sit here and say who’s right or wrong but put it this way – it’s not easy to get good sponsorship in sport so they players have to be very careful who they alienate as far as sponsors are concerned.”

Cricketer Mark Waugh with Shane Warne playing against India in 2002.

As for on the field action this summer, Waugh doesn’t think the Australian team underperforming in the recent T20 World Cup on home soil and failing to reach the finals will have much effect on the games to come.

The ODI series against England kicks off in Adelaide tomorrow, and the visitors and will be flying high after becoming the first team to hold the T20 and 50-over World Cups at the same time at the weekend.

“It’s going to be good series,” says Waugh.

“England are a very, very good one day side and Australia are the same. Obviously Aaron Finch won’t be there – he has announced his retirement from 50-over cricket so Pat Cummins will captain the side and you’d expect with two quality teams there is not going to be too much between them. It’s going to be a pretty tight tussle. Australia in home conditions should maybe start favourites but England are a very good white-ball team.”

Waugh says he expects the home side to win the two-Test series against the West Indies, but the three match series against South Africa is looming as the clash of the summer.

The home side is currently the top ranked Test team with the visitors in third place and both have potent pace attacks that Waugh thinks have the potential to shape the outcome of the series.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” of the series that begins at the Gabba on December 17, before the Boxing Day and New Year Tests in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.

“I think if you look at South Africa their bowling is as good as anything going around world cricket at the moment – there’s Nortje and Rabada and Ngidi and those sorts of guys and Maharaj is a good spinner.

Mark Waugh thinks Pat Cummins has made a strong start as Australia’s Test captain. Picture: Getty Images

“I think the area that South Africa might struggle in – and we have seen this in recent times – is the batting. There is a bit of a lack of depth in the batting and I think that’s going to be an issue for South Africa in Australia on the fast, bouncy pitches. I’d expect Australia to win that series but I think it’s going to be a series dominated by the quick bowlers.”

Despite having a relatively new captain in Cummins and coach in Andrew MacDonald, Waugh says he can’t see any weaknesses in the Australian side, with the possible exception of who the best option is to open the batting with David Warner.

“We have seen a few different combinations in recent times with David Warner so if you were playing against Australia then that’s an area you could look to attack – but then you have great players like Smith and Labuschagne who are world class,” he says.

“So the batting is pretty strong and then you have the great fast bowlers in Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood – and to have someone like Scott Boland back them up shows you what depth the Australian bowlers have.”

See the ODI, Test Series and Big Bash League on Fox Cricket and Kayo