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The era of Waugh's has come to a magnificent end. There was a wholehearted acknowledgement by the entire cricketing world, which witnessed Steve's retirement ceremony.

In his speech, after thanking everyone responsible for building his career, Steve Waugh carefully thanked the selectors for having patience and faith in him. The legend also revealed the importance of good family backing throughout his career.

Steve Waugh has been a role model not only for the kids in their formative years of cricket but also to the senior members of some national teams, who hold him in very high esteem. I can remember how our Rahul Dravid used to emulate Steve Waugh.

Rahul's aggressive walk onto the field to bat with rigorous rotation of the arms is a leaf taken out of Steve's book. Steve rightly said, even if he couldn't win the series, which would have been really befitting; he enjoyed the tough competition and challenge posed by the resolute Indians.

The Indian team was infected with an incurable need to produce results in Australia. The series being levelled with the tourist always in the driver's seat showed the unbelievable dominance that the Indian team had on their opponents.

Coming to the absorbing contest at the SCG, it was always an arduous task for the Indians to force a result. Yet again, Rahul and Sachin disdainfully attacked the Australian attack to put up a formidable target. Brett Lee was off-colour and this series has also taught him the right lessons. Brett Lee's words were louder than his action.

Nathan Bracken and Brad Williams have tasted the hardship of a Test match. It is always the case when you have the best bowlers like MacGrath and Gillespie operating for years, which leaves the second rung players to take a longer time to establish at this level.

The revelation on this tour is the emergence of Irfan Pathan. I feel he has showed the right temperament required for international cricket. To add to his line and length, which was impeccable, the ability to move the ball was so natural for this lad. The crucial wickets he picked well deserved and not out of sheer luck. In fact, watching those dismissals carefully, one found that he had outplayed the batsmen with his ability to earn the wickets than the errant batsmen gifting away their wickets.

In the beginning of the series, Anil made a brutally honest statement saying his records were poor abroad and that has paid rich dividends by the end of the series. Anil, the lion hearted Kumble, once again proved all his critics wrong.

A simple person, Anil who has produced extraordinary results all the way. A bowler is twice his ability if the batsmen puts a decent score on board and a bowler's ability can be reduced to half while defending fewer runs on board. Anil rightly said in the interview that the difference between the tour of 2000 and now is that batsmen are giving a good score for the bowlers.

Anil was severely handicapped without the support at the other end. Murali Kartik will have to measure his performance and scale it up to the next level. It's only true to say that a good Test cricketer can make definite adjustment to become a good one day cricketer whereas a one day cricketer finds it difficult to have a firm footing in Test cricket.

Kartik has age and opportunity to come by and one can only hope that the graduation comes quickly to him.

The Indian batting, needless to say, is the best batting line up in the world but the team management needs a pat on their back at the same time. Induction of Bruce Reid has helped the bowlers for sure. The contribution of Sandy Gordon has made a huge difference to the side in terms of attitude.

Saurav has yet again proved to be the best in business. Although Australians appear better in the shorter version of the game, the exuberant Indian team might script another surprising one-day series.

Javagal Srinath
Courtesy: Star of Mysore