Steve Waugh hands Marnus Labuschagne ODI cap No. 229 with reminder of what it means
Test legend Steve Waugh, who first introduced numbers on ODI caps, handed Marnus Labuschagne his with some stirring words about what it represents - though had an unusual problem with the Test No.3’s name.
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Cricket legend Steve Waugh on Tuesday night delivered the Aussies a passionate pre-game speech as he presented ODI debutant Marnus Labuschagne with his cap.
There was only one problem … Waugh got Labuschagne’s name wrong. And not the tricky South African surname, rather the easy part – his first name.
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Waugh called him ‘Marcus’ twice before Steve Smith respectively corrected the former captain as players stood in a huddle on Wankhede Stadium.
Still, it was a fine speech as world cricket’s newest red-ball superstar became Australia’s 229th ODI player.
Waugh revealed that he created the tradition of Australian players proudly wearing their individual ODI numbers on their caps.
In 1999, Waugh – who is in India taking photos for a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) ‘Spirit of Cricket’ project – looked up every teammates’ number and asked an elderly lady to hand-stitch them on the cap.
“The Baggy Green, you know how much that means to me. It’s special,” Waugh told the players in a speech captured by Cricket Australia’s website.
“But so is this cap. I don’t know if you know the history of the numbers, but I played a lot of cricket and at the end of every (ODI) series people used to throw them away and give them away.
“I used to think one-day cricket has to mean more than that. It’s something special, it’s the same as playing for Australia in Test cricket.
“So I thought how can I make the guys connect and make one-day cricket as Test cricket.
“So I looked up all the numbers of the current team in 1999. I went to Tom Moody and said, We’ve got all the numbers here, I want the numbers on the cap so the guys will keep their cap and know their place in history’.
“From there we got the cap numbers, and I think it’s great to have your place in history. With Marnus debuting, No.229 it’s fantastic.”