As Australian captain from 1997 to 2004, he led Australia to fifteen of their record sixteen consecutive Test wins, and to victory in the 1999 Cricket World Cup.

Waugh was the world number 1 all-rounder in both Test[6] and One Day International (ODI) cricket[7] until back issues forced him to give up bowling.

Known as an attacking and sometimes ruthlessly efficient captain,[12] Described in 2003 as a "cold-blooded, scientific" leader, cricket columnist of The Times Simon Barnes noted that "Waugh wants to defeat you personally.

Raised in the North Coast town of Bangalow, Edward earned selection for the New South Wales Country team in rugby league.

[20] 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.

[citation needed] 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.

[26] The twins progressed to East Hills Boys Technology High School, which had a history of producing Australian international representatives in a number of sports.

[39] At the end of the season, the twins signed a contract to spend the Australian winter to play for Egerton Cricket Club in the Bolton League in Lancashire.

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.

I took it immediately as an uncompromising message to the opposing skipper that Waugh was sick to death of the bouncer policy that the West Indies have for so long adopted as their standard method of attack.

[48] In 1990, Waugh joined his twin brother Mark in an unbeaten partnership of 464 in 407 minutes for NSW against Western Australia (WA) at the WACA Ground, setting a world first-class record.

Returning to Australia, he solidified his position by scoring an unbeaten 147 against New Zealand in an innings victory in the Third Test at Brisbane, ending the series with 216 runs once dismissed.

[48][49] At the conclusion of the tour, the Australian Cricket Board interviewed Waugh, along with David Boon, Mark Taylor and Ian Healy to discern their opinions on the direction of the team after the impending retirement of Allan Border as captain.

Waugh took over the captaincy of the one-day side in 1997–98, after captain Mark Taylor and vice-captain Ian Healy, the two oldest players in the team were dropped[86] following Australia's failure to qualify for the Australian tri-nations tournament in the 1996–97 season.

[citation needed] Planning began for a more modern team for the 1999 Cricket World Cup,[86] with the batting prowess of new wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist to prove critical.

The new team made a difficult start, losing all four of its preliminary matches against South Africa[48][49] as Michael di Venuto, Tom Moody and Stuart Law were all tried as Mark Waugh's new opening partner.

Stuart MacGill and Glenn McGrath fell to Darren Gough after one such instance as Australia collapsed in the second innings whilst chasing a small target.

This criticism could be considered more than a little unfair, however, given his strong record overall of batting well with lower order batsman such as Merv Hughes, Jason Gillespie, Ian Healy, Shane Warne and even Glenn McGrath precisely by putting his faith in them.

This result placed Waugh under immense pressure and he made a controversial decision to drop Shane Warne from the team for the final Fourth Test.

In the fifth match at Georgetown, Guyana,[91] Waugh was facing the bowling of Keith Arthurton with his team needing four runs from the final over to win.

[91] During the West Indies run-chase in the final match in Barbados, local batsman Sherwin Campbell was run out after he fell over because of a collision with the bowler (Brendon Julian) who was attempting to field the ball.

[92] After defeating Bangladesh, Waugh and Michael Bevan were criticised for deliberately batting slowly in order to minimise damage to the net run rate of the West Indies.

The following tour to Sri Lanka continued the difficulties, when Australia lost the First Test in Kandy,[70] a result exacerbated by a horrific fielding collision between Waugh and Jason Gillespie.

[47] Waugh then led the Australians undefeated in the triangular ODI tournament against the West Indies and Zimbabwe, despite employing a rotation system which saw the team often understrength with players rested.

[70] However, VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180)[107] batted for the entire fourth day's play and set Australia a target of 384 on a dusty, spinning wicket.

[109][110][111] Starting the final Test well, Australia's batting collapsed on the second morning, losing 6/26 after Waugh became the sixth batsman to be given out handled the ball—he pushed a ball from Harbhajan away from the stumps after being hit on the pads.

[citation needed][47] When he was dismissed cheaply in the second innings, Waugh ran off the field, as the crowd gave him a standing ovation amidst speculation he may choose to retire after what was regarded as a fairytale century.

[citation needed] The Australian winter of 2003 saw Waugh score consecutive unbeaten centuries of 100 and 156 as Australia took a 2–0 sweep over Bangladesh with innings victories.

Any hope of a win for Waugh's Australians disappeared when India batted into the third morning and amass 7/705 (with Sachin Tendulkar smashing 241*), obliging Australia to chase 449 with just over one day's play.

[citation needed] A shot that Waugh gradually developed (during the 1998 Commonwealth Games specifically) against spin bowling, the "slog sweep" is theoretically technically unsound, but has proven highly effective against the spinners and even against faster bowlers at times.