It was a chance encounter that set Steve Waugh on a post-cricket path of philanthropy.<\/p>\n
Waugh was being interviewed by sports journalist Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock, when he was asked about his greatest influences.<\/p>\n
“[Craddock] said ‘which person would you most like to meet in life?'” he tells ABC iview’s The Assembly.<\/p>\n
Waugh’s answer had come to him instantly: Mother Teresa.<\/p>\n
“I was always fascinated by how she’d dedicated her whole life to the poorest of the poor without regard for material possessions, and I thought, what sort of person is that? That’s pretty unique.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Steve Waugh spent time playing cricket in Kolkata, India. (AAP: Dean Lewins)<\/p>\n
While on a 1996 cricket tour in Kolkata, India, Craddock helped facilitate a meeting.<\/p>\n
“He said, ‘We’ve just got to get a rickshaw, and you’ve got to go to the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity Motherhouse in Kolkata.'”<\/p>\n
“So, I got the rickshaw early in the morning, about 5.30 in the morning, [and] went and witnessed an early-morning mass.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Steve Waugh shared his story with students on The Assembly. (ABC)<\/p>\n
The former Australian cricket captain doesn’t consider himself religious, but says the experience was surreal.<\/p>\n
“Mother Teresa came out of nowhere and walked towards me, and the next minute she was standing in front of me,” he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I didn’t really know what to say, and she was … a bit stooped over, and you could see her hands were affected by rheumatoid arthritis.<\/p>\n
“She just said, ‘hello’, and then she disappeared off out the back through a curtain, and that was it.”<\/p>\n
Loading…<\/p>\n
The brief encounter had a powerful impact on Waugh.<\/p>\n
“She had this certain, amazing charisma and aura,” he says.<\/p>\n
“She did have a power …. and you could feel it when you were around her.<\/p>\n
“That sort of got me motivated. Maybe I should do something in some small way to emulate what she does.”<\/p>\n
The next time Waugh travelled to India, he was invited to Udayan, a rehabilitation centre for children who either have leprosy or whose parents do. Here, he raised funds for a girls’ wing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Steve Waugh’s philanthropy work began at Udayan. (Getty Images: Hamish Blair\/Allsport)<\/p>\n
“I saw that with my power, I guess, and influence and profile, I could raise money and raise awareness.<\/p>\n
“Then, when I retired from cricket in Australia, I thought, ‘I’ve made enough out of cricket, I’ve done really well, I want to start my own charity to give back to kids \u2026 who are in need of support.'”<\/p>\n
Soon after, the Steve Waugh Foundation was born, aimed at helping children and young adults with rare diseases.<\/p>\n
“We decided we were going to [focus on] conditions which had a prevalence of less than two in 100,000. So, the extremely rare conditions.<\/p>\n
“Most of those don’t get support from the government or any other organisations. And these kids are known as the orphans of the health system.”<\/p>\n
Waugh and his wife Lynette have been running the foundation for 20 years, providing tailor-made grants for children.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When Steve Waugh’s cricket career ended in 2004, his philanthropy work was just beginning. (AAP: Dean Lewins)<\/p>\n
Stepping into philanthropy<\/p>\n
One of the foundation’s beneficiaries is Callum Simpson, who was born with a genetic disorder called microdeletion syndrome \u2014 a condition which causes a severe learning delay and physical effects.<\/p>\n
Simpson has received multiple grants from the Steve Waugh Foundation, which he used for hydrotherapy and speech therapy.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he won two gold medals at the Paris Paralympic Games in the Men’s 100m Freestyle S8 and the Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Callum Simpson is now training for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games. (Reuters: Andrew Couldridge)<\/p>\n
In a video for the foundation, Simpson explains how the support has changed his life.<\/p>\n
“It definitely gives me extra motivation to see a foundation that supports people with disabilities\u2026 that’s what I want to do, inspire the next generation of para-swimmers.”<\/p>\n