There never was any doubt that captaincy of a national cricket side can be a lonely affair, given that a skipper has to lead the team and at the same time maintain a distance as well.

The challenge of leading a side and yet holding its players at arm’s length is almost like asking the tightrope walker to juggle six porcelain cups and keep his trousers from slipping down because it is not strapped in place.

Steve Waugh chose to highlight the loneliness earlier this week during a TV interview in Australia. "As a captain you've almost got to put up a brick wall in front of you and not show too much emotion, because you can't afford to give too much of yourself out there, because in some ways you can be taken advantage of," he said. "So I generally keep a lot to myself. I'm a pretty emotional person. I'm basically the opposite of what I'm perceived as on the cricket field..."

Waugh went on to indicate how he would wear a mask to hide his own emotions. "When you drop a player, as captain, you become emotional. You don't cry but you feel like crying. It's hard to hold back... it's hard to get out what you're trying to say to a player when you're dropping someone like Michael Slater or Justin Langer or those sort of guys, because they're good friends," he said.

Indeed, it is never too easy dropping anyone senior from the squad, not to speak of the playing XI. Ask a Sachin Tendulkar or a Sourav Ganguly and, if he is inclined to share the deepest of his feelings, he will tell you how hard it can get when it comes to dropping a big gun from a game and how lonely a captain can get in making the decision.

It is very easy to say sides are not picked on the basis of emotions but they cannot quite be kept beneath the surface all the time. Imagine, having to tell a senior cricketer that he would not be playing and then walking out for the toss. Imagine the toll it can take on the captain’s mind, it is not something that the man who is captain would like to do but his duties as skipper force him to.

Waugh conveys the impression that he pack much thought behind each word that he says to his players and each action on and off the field. And yet, it is this very same thought that leads to loneliness - a trait that psychologists will tend to brand as negative. And sadly, it is a trait that is necessary part of a captain’s countenance.

Loneliness, at any time and in any situation, is a painful thing. And unlike many types of standard loneliness which can be got rid of because each has a solution, captains can never really get rid of the deliberate loneliness.

On the contrary, it is a skill that they have to necessarily cultivate.

If Waugh’s loneliness - or solitude, if you please - is deliberate, even preferred, there is the imposed sort as well. This feeling of being unwanted is the worst form of poverty on a cricket ground. It is this emotion that appears to be over-riding erstwhile Pakistan captain Rashid Latif’s persona these days.

All humans are subject to nervous tension; it is the ability to control it which is the main distinction between the ordinary captain and the good and the genius. Such an analogy may tend to over-simplify or exaggerate the importance of temperament but it serves well to highlight Steve Waugh’s outlook to his role as Australia’s Test cricket captain.

There is no question that Steve Waugh has a heart that is firmly in place. And, even if a Sunil Gavaskar may differ with this because the Australian does not seem to be keen on restricting his team-mates’ instinct for sledging, it can be said his heart is ticking fairly responsibly, too.