Mark Edward Waugh (born 2 June 1965) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer, who represented Australia in Test matches from early 1991 to late 2002, after previously making his One Day International (ODI) debut in 1988. Waugh was a part of the Australian team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup.
Waugh is younger than his twin brother Steve Waugh by a few minutes. Dean Waugh, another of Mark's brothers, is also a cricketer, having played both first-class and List A cricket in Australia for New South Wales. His nephew and Steve's son, Austin Waugh, was selected in the Australian under-19 team. He was previously a national selector, holding that position until August 2018. On 15 May 2018, he announced his intentions to swap national selector duties for a TV commentating role with Fox Sports.
Waugh was primarily a right-handed batsman who batted in the No. 4 position in Test matches. He was also a handy medium pace bowler, but changed to an off-spin bowler after back injuries restricted him. Waugh is regarded as one of the best slip fielders ever to play cricket and held the world record for most Test catches by a non-wicketkeeper until Rahul Dravid broke it in 2009.
He began as an all-rounder in the Australian ODI team, but he later focussed on batting and progressed to opening the batting, where he excelled and became Australia's leading one day runscorer. His three centuries at the 1996 Cricket World Cup made him the first batsman to ever achieve this feat, with the record later equaled by Indian captain Sourav Ganguly at the 2003 Cricket World Cup. This record was later broken by India's Rohit Sharma in 2019 Cricket World Cup with 5 centuries. A fourth century in the 1999 Cricket World Cup made him the only Australian to score four centuries and more than 1000 runs in World Cup competition. He was the 2nd highest scorer for Australia in the World Cup, behind his brother Steve.
Waugh is regarded as one of the most elegant and gifted stroke makers to ever play the game and his stylish strokeplay was likened to that of Stan McCabe, Alan Kippax, Victor Trumper, Charlie Macartney and Greg Chappell.
Following his debut Test century, Australian coach Bob Simpson compared Waugh's elegance to that of Archie Jackson. Mark Taylor called Waugh the "best-looking leg-side player I've seen in my time. . . anything drifting into his pads is hit beautifully."
His facile grace also led to accusations that he was a "lazy" batsman who was vulnerable to soft dismissals.
Waugh is the younger fraternal twin brother of Steve Waugh, with whom he played for most of his career and also under his captaincy.
Born on 2 June 1965 at Canterbury Hospital in Campsie, New South Wales, Waugh was the second of twin boys born to Rodger and Beverley Waugh. He arrived four minutes after Steve. His father was a bank official and his mother was a teacher within the New South Wales Department of Education. The family settled in the western Sydney suburb of Panania. The twins were later joined by two more brothers, Dean and Danny. From an early age, the parents introduced their children to sport. By the age of six, the twins were playing organised soccer, tennis and cricket. In their first cricket match, the brothers were both dismissed for ducks.
The twins came from a sporting family. Their paternal grandfather Edward was a greyhound trainer. Raised in the northern coastal town of Bangalow, Edward earned selection for the New South Wales Country team in rugby league. He was about to join Eastern Suburbs in the New South Wales Rugby League, but had to give up his career due to family reasons. Rodger was Edward's only son and was promising tennis player, who was ranked eighth in Australia in his junior years and was the state champion at under-14 level. On the maternal side, Bev was a tennis player who won the under-14 singles at the South Australian Championships. Her eldest brother Dion Bourne was an opening batsman who played for Bankstown in Sydney Grade Cricket and remains the leading runscorer in the club's history.
The twins made their first representative cricket team when they were selected the Bankstown District under-10s at the age of eight. In 1976, the twins were the youngest ever to be selected in the New South Wales Primary Schools' soccer team. Playing for Panania Primary School, the twins swept their school to win the Umbro International Shield, a statewide knockout soccer competition, scoring all of their team's three goals in the final. They were a key part of their school's consecutive state cricket championships and were part of school tennis team that came second in the state in their final year. In their final year, Mark was the captain of the state primary school cricket and tennis teams, both of which won the national championships. The twins were instrumental in New South Wales winning the cricket carnival without a defeat.
By this time, the increasing time demands led to conflicts between the sports and were in one case delisted from a team due to a conflict of commitments. The twins progressed to East Hills Boys Technology High School, which had a history of producing Australian international representatives in a number of sports. Aged 13, the twins were invited by their uncle Bourne, then the captain of Bankstown's first grade team, to trial for the club's under-16 team for the Green Shield and both were selected. Aged fourteen, both made their senior grade cricket debut in 1979–80, playing in the Fourth XI. The twins broke into East Hills Boys First XI in the same season and achieved the same level in soccer. In 1980–81 the brothers were elevated to the Third XI mid-season. Mark's performance in the Green Shield saw him selected in Bankstown's under-21 team, still aged 15. The brothers often won formed a two-man team—in one match, Mark scored a century and then the brothers took 16/85 between them. At the end of 1980, the twins were selected in the state under-16 team for the national carnival, with Mark as vice-captain.
When Mark was 16, he grew around one foot in one year. It was a relief, because he had been diagnosed with the repetitive stress injury Osgood-Schlatter disease at 15 and told that he would not grow any further than his then height of 152 cm. The pair changed soccer teams to play in the reserve grade for Sydney Croatia in the state league and the pair were paid small amounts in the professional league. However, they quickly left as their cricket careers increasingly demanded more time.
The brothers were promoted to Bankstown's Second XI, before being selected for the First XI in the 1982–83 season, aged 17, both making their debut against Western Suburbs, with Mark making 97 on debut, ending the season with 427 runs at 30.50. This placed him second in his team's aggregates and he contributed 14 wickets at 10.71. By this time, his coaches had already identified the traits by which Mark was to be characterised in his international career, those of apparent laziness and reliable catching.
The twins finished high school at the end of 1983. In 1983–84, both were members of New South Wales Combined High Schools and the state under-19 team. Mark was named as the player of the series after scoring two centuries. The brothers were then selected for Australia for the first time. They had been named in the national under-19 team to play a Test and ODI series against the touring Sri Lankan counterparts. The under-19 series pitted several future international players against one another. Mark scored 123 in the second Test at the Adelaide Oval.
Waugh did not contemplate going to university; both he and his brother became sports equipment salesmen. He made his maiden First XI century during the season, scoring 108 against Mosman.
At the start of the 1984–85 season, the brothers were included in the New South Wales state squad.
At the end of the season, the Waugh twins signed a contract to spend the Australian winter to play for Egerton in the Bolton League in Lancashire in northern England. Each club was allowed to have one professional; Steve was officially designated as such but would split the earnings with Mark. The twins were billeted with a local family. However, during the year, an Australian rebel tour to South Africa was staged, breaking the boycott against the apartheid regime. Some players defected from the Australian Test team to play in South Africa. This resulted in Dave Gilbert being promoted to the national squad, forcing him to forfeit his Esso scholarship, which allowed him to play Second XI cricket in the County Championship. Steve was selected to replace Gilbert with Essex, leaving Mark as the lone professional. Waugh struggled at first, but recovered to score six centuries for the season. As a reward for scoring more than 800 runs and taking more than 50 wickets, Waugh's captain, who was a dentist, gave him free service. Waugh eventually finished the season with 1460 runs and 75 wickets, breaking the club runscoring record by more than 200 runs.