"The turning point for me was meeting Mother Teresa," Waugh said ahead of the official opening of his Australian children's charity. "I was in Calcutta and went along to meet her at the Mother (Teresa) House.

"I witnessed an early morning mass and it was an overwhelming experience. I felt something special with her giving to the poorest of the poor," the former captain said.

Waugh, who has been associated with Udayan, a home for children of leprosy patients, has now taken his charities to the needy in his home country.

"I never see myself as a cricketer. I see myself as being involved in charities," Waugh told The 'Daily Telegraph' on Friday.

The first charity of its kind in Australia, the Steve Waugh Foundation has been established for sick kids who slip between the cracks of established support organisations.

The 41-year-old former cricketer decided he wanted to help the sickest of the sick and spent months researching where charity funds were missing in Australia.