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The detachment of Royal Barbados Police Force officers who remained at Kensington Oval hours after Australia beat Sri Lanka in the 2007 World Cup Final appeared agitated as they looked at their watches for the umpteenth time. Their shift was over; they were weary and wanted to go home. The Aussies yahooing and celebrating made it clear, however, that they weren’t working to a deadline. They’d created history, becoming the first team to win three consecutive World Cups – 1999 in England, 2003 in South Africa and they’d now defeated all-comers to waltz through the West Indies undefeated.
The team’s spirit was high as the squad linked arms and formed a tight circle on another victorious battlefield. As they stood mid-wicket, Gilchrist asked his mates to share their most special memory of the World Cup, and one by one the players and support crew spoke of the image they expected to relive in the years to come. The squad was getting drunk on a potent combination of sentiment and the local rum, but it helped the team to forget that the final had ended in pitch-black and farce.
McGrath had extra reason to whoop it up. After a summer in which his viability as a member of the World Cup squad had been publicly debated by commentators and sources close to Cricket Australia, he’d taken 26 wickets – the most by a bowler at any World Cup – and he had been crowned the Player of the Tournament. McGrath’s 71 World Cup wickets (achieved between 1996 and 2007) was the greatest haul by any bowler and 16 more than the second-placed Wasim Akram. More importantly, though, his farewell to arms was at last complete, and his final duty as an Australian player was to lead his teammates in their victory chant: ‘Beneath the Southern Cross’. As he prepared to belt out his rendition of the song, the police officer in charge stormed towards the group and ordered them to leave the ground. Their shift was over and everyone – World Champions included – was going home.
Ponting appealed for ‘two more minutes’ to sing the ‘bloody’ (or a word to that effect) song, but the law enforcer wasn’t prepared to compromise. Team members would later shake their heads in bewilderment as they spoke of how aggressive the sergeant had become when he’d ordered them to leave. ‘Frothing at the mouth’ was one description. The flashpoint occurred when the officer shouldered Ponting to prove he meant business. When the cricketers moved forward to protect their skipper from any further harm, the two policemen armed with submachine guns braced to meet them. Outraged by the Aussies’ reaction, the sergeant threatened he’d make arrests if the team did not leave the field immediately. McGrath could imagine the message he’d send home to Jane: ‘In Barbados lockup. Visiting day is Thursday. Bring the kids.’
‘They were angry because their shift was about to end and they wanted to get moving,’ recalls McGrath. ‘We only wanted a few more minutes to sing the song, but the situation became volatile and it didn’t seem worth the drama. However, when the officer dropped his shoulder into Ricky we moved in because we didn’t know what was going to happen next. It was all annoying, all very petty, but we didn’t allow it to spoil what had been a terrific team effort. We went through the World Cup undefeated and we won the final convincingly. The way the police handled the situation was a real shame, but we could see no reason to antagonise them further. It was wisest just to go back to the hotel.’
The Australian team’s security detachment, two high-ranking Caribbean police officers, defused the situation by ordering the officer who’d instigated the trouble to ‘stand down’. It was an unfortunate – but perhaps not surprising – postscript to a World Cup branded by some observers as the worst sporting event ever staged. Apart from massive scheduling issues, tickets priced beyond the reach of the average West Indian, and lopsided matches between the game’s superpowers and battling minnows, the seven weeks of the 2007 ICC World Cup will be forever remembered for the suspicious death of the Pakistan coach, former England batsman Bob Woolmer.
On a less dramatic scale, but serious all the same, the Australian team management contended with a new phenomenon: ‘stitch-up photos’, when people purporting to be supporters would try to capture the players in compromising positions. One newspaper published photographs of some stars enjoying drinks with female supporters which were left open to the reader’s interpretation. On another occasion a fellow dressed in an Aussie shirt grabbed Andrew Symonds in a headlock at a nightclub while his mate stood by with his camera at the ready. It appeared the motive was to enrage Symonds and hope he’d react in a way that would stir up controversy. Rather than be sucked into their ‘sting’, Symonds headed straight back to the team hotel. If this was cricket in the new age, ‘old man’ McGrath was quite happy to be getting out.
The Australian team returned to their hotel and gathered around the swimming pool. After clearing his throat, McGrath bellowed the words that should have been delivered at the ground. Fortunately, none of the other hotel guests were bothered enough by the war cry to phone the police, but it signalled the beginning of what McGrath recalls as the mother of all parties and father of all hangovers. The players drank rum and beer through the night and through to the following morning. In between sips of the local liquor, McGrath thought of how his approach to his final World Cup campaign differed from his previous three and he couldn’t help but smile.
‘My attitude was so different,’ he says. ‘In every other series I always focused on what I wanted to achieve – and that was basically to take as many wickets as possible – and how I was going to do it. I went to the West Indies keen to help the other bowlers however I could: spending time with them, talking to them and encouraging them along the way. And it was funny, because rather than being fixated on reaching my personal target, I was more excited by the other guys getting their wickets. My approach was that if I took some, great, but if I didn’t and the other guys grabbed them, well, that was tremendous. I felt a bit like a school teacher who was happy to see his students get top marks. But the funny thing was, after I relieved myself of the pressure to take wickets, they came so much more easily. I took one in my first over on six or seven occasions, and normally they were within my first two or three deliveries.’
Queensland’s Shane Watson – long identified as an integral part of Australian cricket’s future because of his ability to open both the batting and bowling – described being taken under Pigeon’s wing in the West Indies as a time his eyes were opened to many new and exciting things. He not only returned from the Caribbean with a World Champion’s medal, but, courtesy of the team’s most senior player, with insights into life.
‘I spoke to Glenn a lot about cricket – bowling and the ways to approach certain situations – because I knew it was going to be my last series with him and there was plenty I wanted to ask him and plenty to learn from him,’ says Watson. ‘I was lucky to be able to sit down and talk to him about a variety of things, like life and personal situations. I was having trouble with my calf muscle over there and I was amazed to hear him talk about what the mind could do and its ability to help the body heal. Glenn spoke about his own experiences and how he dealt with them, which was incredible.
‘I considered myself so lucky to have a guy like him pass on that information to me. Though from the first time I met him, Glenn was always generous in providing advice. He was one player who would sit down and talk to you for as long as you wanted if you had questions. What struck me about Glenn was he has been through an amazing amount of things throughout his life, but he gained an understanding for the situations he confronted because he thought about them and learned from them.’
Perhaps the greatest lesson McGrath impressed upon Watson, a player he has earmarked for a great future, was to leave nothing in the tank – especially when no-one offered him an ounce of hope of coming through in a tough situation. For Watson, whose career was punctuated by a series of injuries and bad luck, it was a message he grasped.
‘If you listened to the critics before the World Cup, Glenn was supposedly past it,’ he says. ‘Yet he finished as the World Cup’s Player of the Tournament. It was incredible, and it reinforced to me how great he was. I had no doubt he’d have a glorious finish and it showed what a champion he is. I thought it was so awesome he finished that way. If anyone could have written the script for Glenn’s goodbye, they couldn’t have done it better than the way he played it out. He deserved that script because of the wonderful person he is, and the bowler he was.’
McGrath’s final throw of the dice proved the folly of writing off a champion, especially one who’d fought so hard for any gain early on. After doubting McGrath’s ability to make it through the summer’s big three series – the ICC Trophy, the Ashes and the World Cup – Buchanan openly admits McGrath proved him wrong, and that pleased him.
‘Even when Glenn got through the first two challenges – the ICC Trophy and the Ashes – I still had my doubts about his ability to play on the wickets in the West Indies during the World Cup, because we believed they would aid the batsmen because they lacked pace and the grounds were small,’ Buchanan says. ‘What I found interesting about Glenn was that from the time I joined the side, the selectors always seemed to be saying, “This is the end of Glenn McGrath.” There was seemingly something always wrong with him. However, while he was with the team Steve Waugh seemed to always be able to find the right words; he knew how to spur Pigeon along. That was a constant theme throughout the time I was with the team, that notion there was a problem or that he’d lost a yard of pace. But did he go out at the right time? Yes, I think he did.’
While the Australian team wanted to send McGrath off a winner, squad member Stuart Clark admits there was no pact or vow to retain the title for Pigeon in the countdown to the final.
‘We all knew his career was coming to an end – because basically he wouldn’t let us forget,’ Clark laughs. ‘We’d get the countdown at practice: This is my fourth-last training session, this is my third-last training session. I remember just before the final we warmed up and because it rained we had to do it all over again. I remember that because he was unhappy: Glenn thought that was all behind him, and a few of us actually found it quite amusing it wasn’t his last session.’
But no-one in the Australian team found the final hurdle of their World Cup triumph amusing, because it ended in confusion, chaos and darkness.
Australia finished their 38 overs (reduced due to rain delays) at 4 for 281, thanks to a whirlwind 149 by Gilchrist. Under the Duckworth–Lewis method, Sri Lanka needed to score 283 to win, but with 18 balls remaining they needed an improbable 63 runs to win the crown. When the batsmen accepted the umpire’s offer to leave the field because of the light, the Australians believed the game was ended. They danced around the ground embracing one another.
However, the party came to a shuddering halt when umpire Aleem Dar advised Ponting that he and his team would need to return the following day to bowl out the remaining three overs. He also told the ground staff to nail the on-field logos back into place. The players were stunned and the groundsmen were put out by having to do what they thought was more unnecessary work. The Aussies argued that 20 overs was all that was needed to constitute a game, and they’d passed that. The officials, however, countered that the rule applied only for rain – not bad light.
No-one could believe the madness of what was unfurling, but then Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene struck what McGrath described as a ‘blow for sanity’ when he volunteered to bat out the remaining overs to end the game that night. McGrath, like each of his team-mates, accepted the offer as a gesture of tremendous sportsmanship – one that shouldn’t be forgotten in the years to come. In the spirit of goodwill, the Australians bowled their spinners Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds because the batsmen would have been exposed to physical danger had Ponting introduced pace. It was gentlemanly, but it was an edict that denied McGrath his final over.
‘Ricky had planned it so I would bowl the last over of the game, but it wasn’t to be,’ says McGrath. ‘It didn’t matter too much, because by playing in the pitch black I figured I had really experienced everything cricket had to offer. The final was incredible. I was fielding on the boundary and it was like night. They put the lights on in the grandstand, but they were like spotlights and blinded us. They had to turn them off and it was so dark I couldn’t see who was bowling, let alone the ball. I don’t know what I would have done if a catch came my way.
‘But we won and there was a lot of emotion. When I walked around the SCG with Holly and James after my last Test, it crossed my mind that maybe I was setting myself up for a big fall by going to the West Indies because I thought it’d be very hard to better that moment. However, the World Cup final – frustrating finish and all – was a great way to wrap it up. And to be named Man of the Tournament, that was ridiculous.’
McGrath’s last wicket was Russell Arnold, a veteran of 180 One Day Internationals whom he dismissed with the second-last ball of his career. It was not McGrath’s greatest ball by any stretch of the imagination – a leg side full toss that Arnold popped off his hip to a diving Gilchrist. While McGrath celebrated, Arnold shook his head in disappointment. He was also retiring, and it was not the finish he wanted for his international career.
‘At that stage of the game, we were well behind and it was very dark,’ says Arnold. ‘I was under the impression he bowled the ball down the leg side on purpose. My shot was more a prod at the ball in self-defence than an attacking one, and unfortunately for me it lobbed in the air and Gilchrist picked it up. I thought it was a strategy. I thought because it was dark, Glenn realised it would be hard for me to pick the ball up so he bowled it in such a manner. I thought it was clever.’
As McGrath wrapped his hands around the trophy amid the madness in the dressing-room, he studied it carefully. He noted the trophy was made from silver and a thin layer of gold. It featured a golden globe supported by three silver columns that were shaped as stumps and bails. He’d heard someone explain once the columns represented the three fundamentals of cricket: bowling, batting and fielding. On this day though, it represented his three winning campaigns: 1999, 2003 and 2007. As he cradled the 11 kilograms of metal and memories in his arms, he allowed his mind to flood with flashbacks from past campaigns and of old team-mates. It struck McGrath as ironic that his final World Cup appearance was against Sri Lanka, since his first World Cup final had ended in defeat to them 11 years earlier in Lahore.
As McGrath recalls, there had been bombings in Sri Lanka and so the Australian and West Indies cricket boards had refused to send their teams there, meaning they’d forfeited the World Cup points. The Sri Lankan government promised to provide all the security they could to ensure their safety, but the Australian Cricket Board was concerned because Ian Healy, Craig McDermott, Shane Warne, Bob Simpson and McGrath had all received death threats before the team left Australia.
‘Looking back on it now, the contents of the letter were sick. But I was naive and probably didn’t take it as seriously as I should have. I think that growing up in Australia, we develop a false sense of security. Plenty of people, like the police, saw it as a concern, but I was happy to leave it in their hands to deal with. I remember during one previous trip to Sri Lanka, we were at a port and there were two buses. The curtains were drawn across the windows of both vehicles. We climbed on one and the buses went in separate directions. We knew one was a decoy. We knew it was being done for a serious reason but none of us spoke about it. It seemed easier not to have to deal with it at the time.’
Sri Lanka defeated India by default in the first semi-final played before 110,000 fans at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. When India slumped to 8 for 120 in pursuit of Sri Lanka’s 8 for 251, some of the crowd bombarded the playing surface with fruit and plastic bottles. The players took shelter in the dressing-room for 20 minutes, but on their return the bombardment resumed. The match referee, Clive Lloyd – who captained the legendary West Indies teams of the 1970s and 80s – awarded the match to the Sri Lankans.
In Mohali, the Australians defeated the West Indies, courtesy of some cool-headed batting by Stuart Law (72) and Michael Bevan (69), and some spin wizardry from Warne, who took four wickets. It was the first time the Windies had ever lost a World Cup semi-final.
In the final, Sri Lanka, who’d only won a combined total of four games in the previous five World Cup tournaments they’d contested, won the toss and sent Australia in to bat. Cricket tragics pointed out they were flying in the face of history, noting that the team batting first had won the previous five finals. Australia finished at 7 for 241, but as night fell they realised why the Sri Lankans had elected to field.
‘The dew was incredible,’ says McGrath. ‘It was impossible to grip the ball and I think the fact we dropped five catches highlighted how tough it was. We were gutted; it was such an empty feeling to lose. There was a view that it was a great result for cricket because the victory would probably mean more to the people of Sri Lanka than it did Australians, but that was no consolation as we tried to come to terms with it. To their credit though, Sri Lanka played well. They also understood the conditions and took advantage of that knowledge.’
The Sri Lankans were champions of the world – and it would take three long years before McGrath and his team-mates could seek redemption. However, they had the shakiest of starts when the 1999 tournament started. They beat Scotland first up but then lost to New Zealand and Pakistan. As McGrath recalls, it felt as if everyone had written them off.
‘However, we were so confident of winning it I phoned my dad and told him to put the farm on us. He should’ve listened. We had to win every game. We beat Bangladesh and then the West Indies [McGrath snared 5 for 14 to set up the victory] and that pitted us against South Africa in the semi-final. Our team meetings throughout the World Cup were always creative and we were encouraged to contribute ideas.
‘The night before we played the West Indies I had a thought and while I said it tongue-in-cheek, I was half-serious. I asked, “What would we do if we were in a position against the Windies that we were so far in front? Should we bat slowly?” It had to do with winning points in the Super Sixes. It struck a chord with Steve. He said if we could take the West Indies through the next round with us, we would get two points, but if New Zealand went through we’d get none. Steve and Michael Bevan put the brakes on to slow the scoring down and while they got us home, they took their time. New Zealand hammered Scotland in less than 18 overs, so they got the points and we went through to the Super Sixes with none. It not only set us up to play South Africa, but the fact we had no points also meant we couldn’t afford to lose a game because we’d be bundled out.’
South Africa, captained by Hansie Cronje, was the raging favourite to win the World Cup. While the Australians’ campaign had started slowly, the Proteas were the pacesetters. They crushed India by four wickets; hammered defending champions Sri Lanka by 89 runs; humiliated England by 122; and thrashed Kenya by seven wickets. The only blemish on their record was a 48-run loss to Zimbabwe before the Super Six phase of the tournament began. The South Africans had no obvious weakness, but at the Aussie team meeting ahead of the crucial Super Six match between the two nations, Warne revealed an observation he’d made which would have an amazing ramification for Australia’s World Cup campaign.
‘Warnie stood up at the meeting and warned everyone that if Herschelle Gibbs caught them out they were to stand their ground – no matter what,’ says McGrath. ‘He said Gibbs didn’t hold the ball long enough for it to be considered a catch. He’d noticed Gibbs threw the ball straight up in the air to celebrate the second he caught it. His tip was to leave it up to the umpire to make the decision. I think history shows that proved insightful.’
South Africa had set Australia a 271-run chase, of which Gibbs contributed a well-crafted 101. Australia were 3 for 48 when Steve Waugh strode out from the darkness of the dressing-room and on to centre stage. McGrath watched his skipper and couldn’t help but think that if he ever needed someone to bat for his life, it’d be Waugh. He seemed unfazed by the job of having to score at 7.5 runs an over and McGrath admired the way his old batting coach picked the runs off one by one.
However, there was a collective gasp from the players in the room when Waugh flicked a Pollock delivery off his pads and it rocketed towards Gibbs at short mid-wicket. The ball went straight into the South African’s hands, but no-one could believe it when the ball slipped straight out of his grasp because he celebrated prematurely. He went to throw the ball in the air but it dribbled to the ground. Waugh recalled Warne’s advice and stood his ground to force the umpires to make the call – they did, and it was in the Australian captain’s favour. Legend has it he told the crestfallen South African, ‘You’ve just dropped the World Cup, mate.’ In the Australian dressing-room, Warne didn’t attempt to hide his elation.
‘Warnie was great,’ recalls McGrath. ‘He was so happy it was funny. He kept saying, “I told you, I told you.” And he was right. Steve was on 56 when Gibbs dropped the catch and he made 120 not out from 110 balls – and we got home with just two balls to spare. We won the game and it made it very hard for South Africa to rally in time for our semi-final four days later. It gave us a psychological edge. Though it was a game and a half!’
Australia and South Africa played in the semi-final – and critics agreed it would have been better for cricket if the two teams had been in the final. Australia was dismissed for 213 with Shaun Pollock (5 for 36) and Allan Donald (4 for 32) the destroyers. Warne took three quick wickets against South Africa and when Daryl Cullinan was run out, his team teetered at 4 for 61. Jacques Kallis and Jonty Rhodes each made contributions, but the job of winning the game for South Africa came down to Lance Klusener and Allan Donald.
Damien Fleming bowled the last over of the match, with South Africa needing nine to win. Klusener was on strike. The Australians knew that he hit 80 per cent of his runs through the leg side and wasn’t so strong on the off, so Fleming planned to bowl yorkers just outside his off stump. When Klusener belted the first two deliveries to the boundary, Fleming thought to himself, ‘That’s one hell of a strong weakness.’ To put pressure on him, Waugh brought the fielders in. Then there was a missed run-out opportunity – when Darren Lehmann’s underarm throw just went past the stumps – and McGrath thought, ‘That’s it, we’ve missed our chance.’
But then Klusener hit the ball to mid-off, put his head down and started to sprint. ‘It didn’t surprise me that Donald didn’t back up after what had almost happened the ball before, and he didn’t hear the call to run,’ says McGrath. ‘Mark Waugh fielded the ball and threw it to Fleming, and he rolled the ball along the ground to Gilchrist – it seemed to travel at snail’s pace – and Donald was miles out when Gilly ripped up the stumps. The game was a tie and we celebrated like crazy, even though very few of us realised that it meant we’d go into the final!’
A pitched battle had also taken place high in the stands between the Australian and South African players’ partners. ‘I heard there was a bit of sledging,’ laughs McGrath. ‘When it looked as if South Africa was going to win, their wives or girlfriends started jumping up and down and would not sit down when the Aussie girls asked them to. It was on, and from what I understand, a few of the South Africans finished the game in tears.’
The lament that the Australia–South Africa semi was not the World Cup decider rang out when Australia won the final against Pakistan by eight wickets. McGrath’s contribution was 2 for 13 from nine very tight overs, and the players were honoured with ticker-tape parades around the country.
In 2003 McGrath was laughed at when he suggested in his Indian newspaper column that Australia would not only win the World Cup in South Africa, but they wouldn’t drop a game along the way. Little could he have known that Australia would play India in the decider. He credited the calibre of the players in the team for his confidence, though there were two games when the opposition threatened to force-feed him a helping of humble pie.
‘We had a few challenges. The game against New Zealand at Port Elizabeth was one, because the pitch was a real turner – it was like a wicket straight from the Subcontinent. It was always going to be a tough game, and Bichel and Bevan saved our bacon with a great stand. England and New Zealand were our two dodgy games, but we got through to the final and once we did that I felt relaxed. I always believed qualifying for the final was more nerve-racking than actually playing in it.’
McGrath, whose early campaign was hampered by a side strain which needed treatment with six cortisone needles, rallied to decimate Namibia by taking 7 for 15. The Africans, who were set 302 for victory, were bundled out for a paltry 45. The record book noted that McGrath’s was the best World Cup bowling performance since Winston Davis took 7 for 51 in 1983.
‘Andrew Symonds was named Man of the Match against Pakistan and his award was a Pamp solid gold watch made in Switzerland and worth about $3000,’ says McGrath. ‘When I saw the watch I thought I would really love to get one of those, so I couldn’t have been happier after Namibia. Trophies and mementos meant a lot to me during my career, because I’ve found when I looked at them they brought the memories of the games to life. I have a display case at home and I’m proud of what it represents.’
McGrath added a gold Krugerrand to his collection when Australia defeated India in the final at Wanderers. ‘We were pretty laid-back and easy-going in the build-up,’ he recalls. ‘The Indians were very serious and solemn. There was no talk and certainly no laughs. I remember feeling the anticipation build up in the team bus on the morning of the final, but we were confident. The pitch offered good bounce, but I thought Ganguly made the wrong choice when he elected to send us in to bat first. I guess he was hoping the bounce would go out of the pitch as the game progressed and it would become more batsman-friendly. Unfortunately for India, Damien Martyn and Ricky put on 234 runs in the last 30 overs to set India 360 to win.’
McGrath’s first over brought the wicket of the great Sachin Tendulkar – caught and bowled for 4. However, the rain clouds – and not India’s batsmen – were Australia’s greatest concern when they were forced to leave the field during the seventeenth over.
‘It was a worry because we had to bowl 25 overs for the final to be classified a game,’ says McGrath. ‘We were pacing up and down the rooms waiting for the promised clear weather. If we didn’t bowl the 25 overs, we’d have to return the following day and start from scratch. Our 359 would have counted for nothing.’
The skies cleared and Australia immediately went on the attack. McGrath, Bichel and Symonds combined to rout India for 234 – and, it seemed, in the nick of time.
‘The presentation was conducted against a background of swirling black clouds. It looked like the end of the world,’ McGrath recalls. ‘We went to the middle of the pitch, draped an Australian flag over it and Gilly led us in our team song. It was special ... we were the World Champions again.’
McGrath’s final hurrah in the West Indies in 2007 was a time for the Australians to celebrate the end of his career as much as their successful defence of a crown the rest of the cricketing world had plotted and planned to knock from their heads. Shane Watson, who’d absorbed all he could from his chats with McGrath during the previous weeks, appreciated the significance of the victory for the paceman who’d become his mentor.
‘We were gone for seven weeks and I know he missed home because he has such a beautiful family,’ says Watson. ‘He really missed Jane, James and Holly. But he wanted to finish as well as he possibly could. Glenn appreciated that it was his chance to have one last crack before going back to what he’d dreamt of for quite a while – his family. He knew the end was coming and he was focused on making his being away from them for such a long time worth their while. I know he wanted it to end on a perfect note before he spent the rest of his life with what I see as his perfect family.’