… He was hailed as the next big thing, and persisted with through thick and thin, and now the faith invested has begun to reap results big time. Watch for Watson to be crucial at the World Cup
FOUR years ago on a cruise ship docked in Grenada, Merv Hughes, part-time selector and part-time travel guide, was taking questions from his World Cup tour group when an older gentleman piped up. “Is that hugely overrated Shane Watson playing today?” the man asked in frustration.
“I believe,” Merv replied, “and the other selectors believe, and Ricky Ponting believes, that Shane Watson will become Australia’s most important player within the next few years.”
The answer was greeted with scepticism. Watson-bashing was a popular pastime among Australian supporters, who had seen the young allounder spend seven years in and out of the national team – mostly out.
Many Australian fans felt the selectors were so blinded by the 2005 Ashes that they wanted an Andrew Flintoff of their own, and that Watson was a poor man’s Freddie at best.
Others saw him as a delicate flower, his emotions all too public. Surely anyone who cried, or a man who thought he was having a heart attack when some food disagreed with him in India, would never be hard enough for international cricket? Some liked him and wished he would live up to his promise, but were resigned to his career being cut short by injury.
Whatever the fans on that cruise liner thought of Watson, few agreed with Merv’s prediction. Fast-forward to the 2011 World Cup and Hughes, now an ex-selector, has been proved right.
Watson enters the tournament as the winner of the past two Allan Border Medals, the one-day team’s leading scorer of the past two years and their second-highest wicket-taker in the same period.
And, without question, as the team’s most important player. Among the major contenders, perhaps only Jacques Kallis is as critical to his side’s all-round success at this tournament as Watson is for Australia.
His most vital role is as an opening batsman, alongside Brad Haddin. In 2007, Australia had Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist to set the tone and they did the job so well that the middle order was rarely under serious pressure.
Haddin is a powerful striker but his form is moderate, and Watson is the one who should really impose himself.
That’s especially significant in the current Australian outfit, where the No.3, Ricky Ponting, is returning from injury, the No.4, Michael Clarke, can build but won’t blast, and the reliable finisher Michael Hussey is at home in Perth nursing a tender hamstring.
The situation is clear – for Australia to win their fourth consecutive World Cup, Watson must have a big tournament.
He’ll enjoy the slower pitches on the subcontinent, where he will have extra time for his front-foot pulls and drives, and as the Player-of-the-Tournament in the first IPL, he is a proven performer in the conditions.
He’s also shown himself to be a man for big moments: what better pedigree for a potential World Cup hero than back-to-back hundreds in a Champions Trophy semi-final and final, as Watson achieved in 2009?
And his bowling in this tournament shouldn’t be underestimated. In an attack that will rely heavily on the sheer pace of Shaun Tait, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson, Ponting will look to Watson for variation, reliability and reverse swing, as he is one of the few in the attack who can claim to have it mastered
It is to Watson’s great credit that he did not give up bowling a few years ago, when every time he ran in to deliver the ball his team-mates held their breath and hoped a muscle wouldn’t snap.
He broke down 12 times in six years, and it turned out that he was too brawny. With help from the sports physio Victor Popov, Watson worked out that the gym was not the answer and that other fitness options like pilates were needed to help him become more flexible.
He has transformed not only his body but also his role in the game, becoming a reliable Test opener, whose major flaw is forgivable – he makes too many fifties and not enough hundreds.
That hasn’t been the case in one-day cricket, and his unbeaten 161 in the series opener against England in January will go down as one of the all-time great Australian limited-overs innings.
It makes for a formidable all-round package and it seems remarkable, in hindsight, that Hughes and his fellow selectors didn’t have more supporters when they persisted with Watson, year after year, injury after injury.
Watson knows he didn’t help himself with some of his behaviour. Even as recently as late 2009 fans tut-tutted at his obnoxious celebration when he bowled Chris Gayle in the Perth Test, which also brought a fine from the match referee.
But finally, at 29, Watson is starting to win the Australian cricket public over. The admiration has come through a maturing approach, and more importantly, piles of runs and wickets.
“It was something that I really craved, with the issues that I had with my injuries and also some of the ways I carried on in the field as well really didn’t help me out as much,” Watson said this week. “Probably one of the most satisfying things that has happened over the last couple of years has been to see people really appreciate what I’m able to do.”
That respect will keep growing if Watson turns it on at the World Cup. Oh, and that match in Grenada four years ago? Merv’s words were still ringing in the ears of the Australian fans as Watson belted 65 off 32 against New Zealand.  (ESPN Cricinfo)