![]() When his statue was unveiled in his presence at London’s Madame Tussauds he bristled in front of the crowd because the wax work made him look overweight. Off the field Warne was a flawed genius that made him relatable and more endearing than the stoic Kumble. Ponting was a worthy captain, but Warne was the best captain any country didn’t have and would have taken Australia even higher than the lofty standards set by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. A scandal deprived him and Australia of him becoming test captain. When Warne bowled a peach against England he loudly said, “That’s unplayable, like the Spice Girls,” a devastating fusillade which did him justice and creamed England’s proudest achievement of the time. Ian Bell was derisively labeled the “Sherminator”, after a humiliated character from the high school comedy “American Pie” which Bell slightly resembled. Warne was as sharp with his words as he was with the ball. In an era of great spinners Warne stood apart, a Colossus but also utterly human. A peroxide blonde bowler who would nonchalantly amble to the pitch and lob Molotov cocktails at the hapless batsmen. Simply put, Warne put the coolth into spin bowling. But using numbers to define Warne is like using sound wave theory to define Mozart’s symphonies. ![]() One of Wisden’s top 5 cricketers of the 20th Century, only bowler to be included. Warne was rumbling and cutting like he had but much to Ricky Ponting’s and rest of the world’s disappointment, he announced his retirement at the end of the 2006 Ashes. ![]() His swansong came in 2006 in his homeland as Australia went on to taken sweet revenge and decimated England 5-0. A dropped catch off Peterson lost the series but Warne had held the old nemesis in the palm of his hand all summer. Deprived of Glenn McGrath and facing the best English side since the 1970s, Australia held on almost till the end only because of Warne’s 40 wickets at less than 20 apiece. Match after match, Warne struck crucial blows. The 2005 Ashes was touted as Shane Warne versus Kevin Peterson, and it did not disappoint. Two series stand out, both Ashes which is poetically correct since he announced himself in one. Through the early 2000s Warne scythed through sides. Bowled, leg before, stumped or caught, often at Warne’s choice. The ball would whirr and purr as it moved and then teased and tortured the batsmen till the inevitable happened. The flipper, stung, spit and bit when it landed, throwing up dirt and pieces of the pitch in its furious revolutions. There was magical drift that came laden with a sorcerer’s spell. There was massive spin which defied the laws of physics. He had lost his googly by then but everything else was utter perfection. The Australia-West Indies of 1999 had him facing Lara in his imperious pomp. “Warne who? McGill the new spin king”! screamed a newspaper headline.īut Warne made everyone eat their words and from then on many of my favorite cricket moments revolved around him. Soon after Warne suffered a shoulder injury and Stuart McGill became the first-choice spinner for Australia. Using numbers to define Warne is like using sound wave theory to define Mozart’s symphonies I knew about the “Ball of the Century” and had seen him bowl in the 1996 World Cup, but Australia didn’t play two matches and Warne was upstaged by Jayasuriya and the marauding Sri Lankans. Was Warne really that scary? Of course, my uncle had seen Warne torment England Ashes after Ashes first-hand and knew his game. My uncle was a stoic man and hearing his rather emotional and slightly irrational words made me wonder. Warne didn’t play but the rest of bowlers ran through Pakistan to give Australia their first Test series win in Pakistan since 1959. It was a portentous statement, and prayers were answered though it was a shoulder injury and not ankle. “Gentleman let us pray that he breaks an ankle or a leg.” “The only way Pakistan will win is if Shane Warne breaks his ankle,” he intoned. As a barrister from Lincoln’s Inn, he certainly had the gravitas for bold proclamations. After weighing Pakistan’s chances for well over an hour my uncle announced judgement. In 1998 I was at my uncle’s home for dinner and talk invariably turned to Australia’s upcoming tour to Pakistan.
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