Allan Border opens up on banning wives and his relationship with Steve Waugh

There are few names bigger in Australian cricket than Allan Border. He opens up on some of the biggest moments in his incredible career.

Allan Border and Steve Waugh have opened up about their unique relationship which featured a 10-year stint when they did not have a long conversation.

In the third and final part of Allan Border: My Story on Fox Sports, the two pull back the curtain on their unusual friendship when Border was Australian captain in the mid-1980s and Waugh was emerging as a key player.

During that tempestuous decade, as Waugh grew from a bashful youngster to one of the game’s greats, the duo never once had a lengthy conversation, oddly enough not because they didn’t get along but because Border trusted Waugh to quietly go his own way.

Waugh craved more from Border but was too shy to say so.

They played together internationally from 1985 to Border’s retirement in 1994 but it was not until the retired Border entered the victorious Australian dressing room in the West Indies in 1995 after the host team had been beaten for the first time in 15 years that the masks came off both men.

Allan Border (L) and Steve Waugh in 1994.

“We had been sitting around talking in the dressing room for some time and the manager said the bus was ready and some of the boys said ‘hang on, we have finally got AB to open up,’’ Border said.

Waugh told Border he had been waiting for that sort of conversation for many years which made Border feel rueful that he had not been more open with his players.

“It was an open and frank conversation and I sort of realised that I should have been doing that years earlier,” said Border

Waugh added: “I said some time later, why didn’t we talk much about cricket? And he said ‘I didn’t need to talk to you because you were always going to make it’.”

Border said: “I said to him ‘why didn’t you say something?’ He said ‘well I was waiting for you to say something because you were the captain. I was just this young punk in the team’.’’

Border modestly gave his captaincy rating a six out of 10 mark and added he wished he had communicated more with his players.

Allan Border toasts Steve Waugh at the 2001 Allan Border Medal. Picture: AAP/Julian Smith

“Once I got the job as captain I should have embraced the job a lot more and thought a bit more about what it actually means. You are in charge of a group of these blokes and they are looking for direction.

“I learned that late. There were a lot of players I could have helped along the way and I think they would have been better Test cricketers if I had been a bit better sounding board. The communication side of things was one huge weakness in my captaincy I would like to readdress if I had another go at it.’’

Alan Border didn’t back down from his stance on banning wives from the 1989 tour.

AUSTRALIA RULES THE WIVES

Border revealed why he took the strong stance to ban wives from the majority of Australia’s iconic 1989 Ashes tour – and how several of them haven’t talked to him since.

Border said he thought deeply about Australia’s losses on the 1981 and 1985 tours and felt his team was made more vulnerable and single and married men went different ways on tour and how a player who needed a rest after play would sometimes feel obliged to entertain his wife with, for instance, a night at the theatre.

The wives were not happy with Border and things came to a head at the victory celebrations after the last Test.

“Just won the Ashes and I am the happiest man in the world. I was sitting in the team hotel bar. I have had a few drinks and life is good. We have just beaten England 4-0.

“About three or four of the girls came up to me and surrounded me and started to give me heaps. They said ‘we won 4-0 and we are still here and you still won’.

“I remember putting my hand up and saying ‘speak to the hand girls. We were 3-0 up before you got here. Don’t take credit for it.’ Some of them have not spoken to me since but hey, 4-0 up.’’

Allan Border (R) during the tickertape parade to celebrate the 1989 Ashes win.

RETIREMENT

In a timely warning for the group of modern players contemplating their exits from the game, Border for the first time speaks of his regrets at the way he exited the game after a low key draw against South Africa at Durban in 1994.

Border knew at the time it was his last Test but kept it a secret until finally revealing his intentions in an interview with Channel 7’s Pat Welsh.

“I was asked endlessly for two years when I was going to retire,’’ he said. “And I started to get really annoyed with that. South Africa were coming back into international cricket and that carrot was dangled ahead of me but in hindsight I should have announced something.

“I know when I was playing it that it would be my last game but I never told anyone and I regret that. I should have announced a certain date.’’