While the Test series between Australia and India is going to begin soon, former Aussie captain Steve Waugh spoke about Parthiv Patel’s banter with him during his last international cricket match and he doesn’t want to call it as sledging.

It was the fourth and final Test of the series between the hosts Australia and the visitors India at Sydney in January 2004, while the series was standing at 1-1. With the help of Sachin Tendulkar’s 241 and VVS Laxman’s 178 runs, India put a massive first innings total of 705/7 decl.

In reply, Australia was bundled out for 474 runs but India decided to bat again instead of forcing to follow-on. In their second innings, India declared on 211/2 with setting a fourth innings target of 443 runs for the hosts.

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Chasing down that target, Australian captain Steve Waugh came to bat for the last time in international cricket when Australia was battling on 170/3. The skipper played a match-saving knock of 80 runs before the Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble dismissed him at the end moment of the day. At the end of the day, Australia was batting on 357/6 and that match ended in a draw (also series ended with the 1-1 result).

During the last day of his international career, when Waugh was batting for his team to save the game, the young Indian wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel commented, “Let’s see if you can play one of those famous slog-sweeps, and miss one.”

In reply, Waugh said, “Show a bit of respect, You were in nappies when I played my first Test match.”

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Recently, in an interview with Cricket Australia, Waugh said that it was not sledging, rather than it was banter for him.

Waugh told Cricket Australia, “It’s not sledging. People say there’s too much sledging in the game, I think you can do it in a different way and have a bit of a laugh and a bit of fun. While people say that was a sledge, to me that was banter.”