Test cricket's second leading run-scorer Steve Waugh is the best player Australia has produced apart from Don Bradman, Zimbabwe coach Geoff Marsh said on Friday.

"I think he has to be rated as one of the best, if not the (best)," Marsh told reporters in Perth.

"Obviously Bradman stands alone, but I reckon his record speaks for itself," Marsh said of his former team mate Waugh.

"His captaincy record is outstanding and his performance with the bat speaks for itself.

"All Stephen's hundreds in Test cricket, they are all under pressure."

The late Australian great Bradman, widely regarded as the best batsman to play the game, hit 29 centuries and averaged an unrivalled 99.94 in 52 Tests. He died aged 92 in February 2001.

Waugh is Test cricket's most capped player. The right-hander has hit 10,521 runs in 162 Tests at an average of 51.07 including 32 centuries, second only to former India captain Sunil Gavaskar's 34.

Waugh trails his former captain Allan Border by 653 runs as the game's leading run-scorer. Waugh is also the game's most successful captain with 38 victories from 51 matches.

JOINT DEBUT

Marsh, 44, and Waugh, 38, both made their test debuts in Australia's 1985-86 series against India.

A tough opening batsman, Marsh made 2,854 runs in 50 Tests at an average of 33.18 with four centuries. He also played 117 one-day internationals and enjoyed World Cup triumph with Australia as a player in 1987 and as coach 12 years later.

Marsh said Waugh's dramatic last-ball century in the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney this year was one of the best hundreds he had seen.

"The other one was his hundred in the World Cup in 1999 in Headingley, when we had to beat South Africa to get into the semi-finals. Great knocks, inspirational, great for the game," Marsh said.

The Western Australian will coach Zimbabwe in October in a two-Test series against Australia.

"Our guys are so keen to get over here and to play against Steve, because he wasn't at the World Cup," Marsh said.

"They want to play a Test match against him ... and after the game, have a chat to him. No-one knows the game better than Steve does."

Australia named a "dream team" of the 20th century in January 2000, with Bradman as captain and Border as 12th man while Waugh was overlooked.

The Times of India newspaper reacted at the time with a headline "No S.Waugh in Aussie dream team".