Fans go wild as Waugh faces his final Test for Australia

STEVE WAUGH has insisted there was no sadness in his heart as he stepped onto the Sydney Cricket Ground for the final Test of his career.

Waugh leads Australia against India with the series level at 1-1 and said: "I'm just going to try and enjoy it.

"These things only happen once in your life and I want to make it as positive an experience as I can.

"I don't feel it's a sad occasion. I look at others who never got to play a Test match and I've played 168."

Tickets for the first three days of the match sold out months ago and city was swamped with chaotic traffic and transport congestion around the ground.

And Waugh's manager, Robert Joske, described trying to deal with the build-up to the game as "like trying to hold a tidal wave back".

"We are getting millions of media requests in the lead-up to Steve's final Test. But I guess I'm running interference by trying to keep things normal," he said.

"It's almost incomprehensible to imagine that it was 18 years ago I started it doesn't feel that long ago," said Waugh.

"I don't think it'll hit me until after the Test match when I walk away and realise that's the last time I'll play for Australia."

Whatever the outcome of the match, Waugh believes Australia's rivalry with India will go from strength to strength over the next few years.

He said: "The platform is there. The last two series have been phenomenal.

"The Border-Gavaskar Trophy will hopefully be as famous as the Ashes one day."

Waugh is also backing radical changes to the rules of the game, including the scrapping of leg byes and the banning of runners for injured batsmen.

"Bowlers, when they get injured, don't have any help. I think batsmen if they get injured, they've got to play."