“It was a pitch with a lot of grass on it,” said Ambrose. “It was a difficult pitch to bat on. It was conducive to fast bowling, and I was really on top of the Australians. Steve Waugh got 60-odd in the first innings and he played very well. On a normal day that could have been 150. But he was struggling, playing and missing a lot and he got frustrated. One of my teammates told me as I was walking back, because I’d given him a stare, and then I go back to my mark, and one of my teammates told me ‘Steve Waugh said to “Eff off”, or “Eff off and get back to my mark”, or something along those lines. But honestly I didn’t hear him.”
It was only after the interval that Ambrose’s anger bubbled over. “After the break, I bowled at him again and he kept missing. So as I follow through, something snapped in me” he said. “I asked him the question, ‘Did you swear at me?’ And he didn’t say yes, he didn’t say no, he just said “I can say whatever I want to say” and that to me was a yes. And that’s when all hell broke loose. And I said to him, ‘I don’t have to play cricket, I have no career left, I will knock you out right here and now. And if they ban me, I don’t really care.’ But of course I didn’t say it that gently, there were a few expletives in between. I was really heated.”
https://wisden.com/stories/curtly-ambrose-didnt-hear-steve-waugh-comment-that-nearly-sparked-punch-up
