Random Cricket Photos - Steve Waugh's bat stickerless

The Random Cricket Photos Guy Guy | March 01, 2023

Since a talented Shubman Gill’s bat sans a sponsor sticker has got everyone wondering, it reminded me of one of the most famous pictures from the game in the 21st century where the subject is curiously without a bat sponsor. Here is the story behind it.

In 2001, Steve Waugh was entering his 16th year of international cricket at the age of 36. In 2001, his bat sponsorship deal with bat manufacturers Gunn and Moore also came to an end. Their Australian bat-making operation wasn’t making enough money and they just didn’t have the money to pay him. In the background, there was also a tussle going on between ICC and the cricketers as ICC at that point only allowed batsmen to use logos of bat manufacturers. Bat manufacturers didn’t have the kind of money to shell out for sponsorships that other players like MRF or Reebok had.

At this point, if you’re wondering that how did MRF manage to find space on Sachin Tendulkar’s bat, well, that’s because they were clever, like many Indian companies before them. MRF or Madras Rubber Factory is a tyre manufacturing company but to circumvent the ICC rules and be on the bat of the most popular cricketer, they just brought a bat factory!

Back to the Waugh story. After the Gunn and Moore deal expired, Waugh sought other companies but, in his own words, “no one wanted me because I was too old… every company had their players for next year.” And so Waugh left for the Ashes in England without a sponsor sticker on his bat. It was a calculated move because going without a sponsor was to cost him money but it also gave him the time to wait for ICC to relax its regulations. In his own admission, “he was happy to be patient.”

Interestingly, as Waugh notes in his Ashes Diary 2001, “I really enjoyed batting without a sponsor on the back of my bat… looking down and there was nothing there. It was like being in the under-10s again.”

Well, when it came to the final test of the series, it was he who batted like he was playing against the under-10s!

The senior Waugh had missed out on the fourth Test of the series because of a torn calf in the third Test that was to keep him out of cricket for longer than three months. Despite being bound to a wheelchair post-injury, he miraculously cut down the recovery time to less than three weeks. But he was still far from being 100% fit when the coin was flipped or when it was his time to walk out in the middle, but he did it. In his absence, Australia had faced defeat in the fourth match. He wanted to be there to lift the trophy with the team as they had already won the series.

Batting with his brother Mark, Steve began to feel a sharp pain after his score had crossed 30. This was, of course, not a good sign given the seriousness of the injury he was carrying. Besides, going off on a stretcher wasn’t the ideal way to end the tour for the Australian skipper. With no runner possible, he asked his brother to cut down the tight singles as he was going to go bang bang! And he went bang bang on one leg, enthralling the Oval crowd to play one of the most sensational Ashes knocks of this century.

On 99, with fielders hovering around the circle, he set off for a tight run off Darren Gough’s bowling and barely made it to the crease get to his 27th hundred. As the Oval crowd applauded what they thought would be the last innings they would see from Waugh in England, he sheepishly smiled from behind the helmet and raised his bat. A stickerless one. What an opportunity missed for the companies worldwide!

He eventually ended on 157 not out as Australia won the match by an innings and the series 4-1.

Later that year in November, MRF signed a three-year deal with Waugh which was then the costliest bat sponsorship deal in Australian cricket.

As they say, patience pays.