Editing Mark Waugh (section)

==Formative professional career==

At the end of the season, the Waugh twins signed a contract to spend the Australian winter to play for [[Egerton Cricket Club|Egerton]] in the [[Bolton League]] in [[Lancashire]] in [[northern England]]. Each club was allowed to have one professional; Steve was officially designated as such but would split the earnings with Mark. The twins were billeted with a local family.<ref name="k36">Knight, p. 36.</ref> However, during the year, an Australian rebel tour to [[South Africa]] was staged, breaking the boycott against the [[apartheid]] regime. Some players defected from the Australian Test team to play in South Africa. This resulted in [[Dave Gilbert (Australian cricketer)|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]].<ref name="k37">Knight, p. 37.</ref> Steve was selected to replace Gilbert with [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]], leaving Mark as the lone professional.<ref name="k38">Knight, p. 38.</ref> Waugh struggled at first, but recovered to score six centuries for the season. As a reward for scoring more than 800 runs and taking more than 50 wickets, Waugh's captain, who was a dentist, gave him free service. Waugh eventually finished the season with 1460 runs and 75 wickets, breaking the club runscoring record by more than 200 runs.<ref name="k39">Knight, p. 39.</ref>

Waugh returned to Australia for the 1985–86 season, looking to make his First-class debut. He scored 177 against [[Petersham Cricket Club|Petersham]] in just five hours and was selected for the state Second XI. Then, an opportunity arose with further ramifications of the rebel tours of South Africa. A two-year ban on playing state cricket was imposed on the players. This meant that New South Wales was looking for two new opening batsmen, as both [[Steve Smith (cricketer born 1961)|Steve Smith]] and [[John Dyson (cricketer, born 1954)|John Dyson]] had defected and been banned. Waugh and Taylor were selected to make their [[Sheffield Shield]] debut.<ref name="k40">Knight, p. 40.</ref>