Shane Warne – A larger than life figure who led a colourful and fascinating life

OBITUARY

(13th September 1969 – 4th March 2022)

In the cricket world, Shane Warne is considered by many as second only to immortal Don Bradman. The Australian spin wizard Warne, a larger than life figure who led a colourful and fascinating life, died at the age of 52 from a suspected heart attack in Thailand on 4th March 2022. There have been many great cricketers in the sport’s long history but few have changed the game quite like Warne did during his playing days. He single-handedly revived the art of leg-spin bowling, a skill that had all but disappeared from Test cricket following the end of Pakistan great Abdul Qadir’s career. Many of cricket’s current leg spinners have credited Warne with inspiring them to choose bowling leg spin as a career: India’s Yuzvendra Chahal, Pakistan’s Yasir Shah and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan among them. During his extra-ordinary 15-year career, Warne remained always in the news not only for his brilliant cricketing deeds but also for all the wrong reasons. The greatest leg-spinner had a flamboyant lifestyle cast outside the mould of a traditional cricketing icon, often putting himself at odds with the game’s purists.

Warne was an unlikely candidate for a sporting hero or national icon when he began his professional life as a shy and chubby boy from Melbourne’s outer suburbs. Warne was at the Australian Academy of Sport for his cricket by the age of 19, played at first-class level by 21 and made his Test debut at 22. Admired by his team mates and adored by fans, Warne’s inestimable impact was reflected by his inclusion in a list of the Wisden Cricketers of the 20th Century, alongside Bradman, Garfield Sobers, Jack Hobbs and Viv Richards.

Born on 13th September 1969 in Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Warne’s discipline, passion and sheer talent drove him to the 708 Test wickets in a 145-Test career that made him a superstar and the scourge of batsmen worldwide. A part of a dominant Australian Test team in the 1990s and 2000s, his record was later broken by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (800). Warne also picked up 293 ODI wickets and won the World Cup with Australia in 1999 where he was man of the match. Warne too was a handy late-order batsman. Though his test average was only 17.3 he took the role seriously and holds the record for the most Test runs (3,154) without a century — his highest score being 99. The first bowler to claim 700 Test wickets with an assortment of leg-breaks, googlies, flippers and his own “zooters”, Warne retired from Australia duty in 2007 following a 5-0 series win at home to arch-rivals England. In addition to his international exploits, Warne also enjoyed a successful career with his Australian state side Victoria and English county team Hampshire. With his dyed blonde hair, stud ear-ring and willingness to ‘sledge’ or verbally abuse opposition batsmen, he had the look and attitude of an aggressive quick, with fast bowling then the dominant force among most Test attacks. He was a master of mind games, targeting batsmen ahead of a series and warning he was working on a new mystery ball to bowl out his “bunnies” in the opposition line-up.

‘Ball of the century’ during Ashes 1993 in England: Warne’s debut Test against India returned one wicket for 150, and the end was near. Then he knocked over three Sri Lankans in 31 balls to win a thriller in Colombo and suddenly he was away. A match-winning 7-52 beat the mighty West Indies, he hoovered up wickets in New Zealand. Then the legend truly began in 1993 when Warne riveted the cricketing world with his infamous “ball of the century” against England, as his first ball in Ashes pitched outside leg stump and took off to remove England batsman Mike Gatting’s off stump bail at Old Trafford. Warne arrived on that tour of England relatively unknown outside Australia and with fairly unspectacular figures from his first 11 Test matches. All that changed in an instant during the Ashes series in which Warne took an incredible 34 wickets in Australia’s 4-1 drubbing of the hosts. Never before had a new talent blasted on to the scene in such devastating style. Warne’s simple and endlessly repeatable action meant he could bowl marathon spells and such was his accuracy that, alongside being a demon attacking weapon, he was very effective in stopping runs, which also made him successful in one-day games. Suddenly, leg-spinners were back in fashion and every team wanted to have one, even if none could match Warne.

Former Pakistan Test skipper Salim Malik gets life ban: The fixing scandal that shook Pakistan cricket surfaced in 1995 when Australian players Shane Warne and Mark Waugh alleged that Pakistan captain Salim Malik offered them bribes surrounding the first Test between Pakistan and Australia in Karachi in 1994 and the ODI in Rawalpindi, which they rejected. The Justice Qayyum Commission recommended life ban on Salim Malik for offering bribes to Australian players Shane Warne and Mark Waugh.

Warne arrived on that tour of England relatively unknown outside Australia and with fairly unspectacular figures from his first 11 Test matches. All that changed in an instant during the Ashes series in which Warne took an incredible 34 wickets in Australia’s 4-1 drubbing of the hosts. Never before had a new talent blasted on to the scene in such devastating style. Warne’s simple and endlessly repeatable action meant he could bowl marathon spells and such was his accuracy that, alongside being a demon attacking weapon, he was very effective in stopping runs, which also made him successful in one-day games. Suddenly, leg-spinners were back in fashion and every team wanted to have one, even if none could match Warne.

‘Soap opera life’: Warne himself once described his life as a soap opera, such was the litany of his off-field controversies. Warne, also nicknamed “Hollywood”, survived several scandals and pursued an energetic love life which is widely thought to have cost him the Australian captaincy. In 1998 it emerged that Warne and Australian team-mate Mark Waugh had been fined three years earlier for supplying information to an Indian bookmaker, and he was stripped of the Australian team vice-captaincy in 2000. A series of infidelities culminated in a public break-up from his wife of 10 years, Simone Callahan, with whom he had three children. At one point he was engaged to British actress Liz Hurley. He also missed the 2003 World Cup in South Africa after he tested positive on tournament-eve for a banned diuretic — a weight-loss pill sometimes used to mask steroids — in a scandal which saw him banned for a year. Warne returned to Test cricket in March 2004 but never again played international one-day matches, instead preferring to concentrate on the longer form of the game. Also shoulder surgery had restricted the variety of his attack but the sheer relentlessness and skill at delivering the balls he could still master meant he remained a formidable operator.

Following his international retirement in 2007, Warne continued to star on the Twenty20 franchise circuit, appearing for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League and his home town Melbourne Stars in Australia’s Big Bash League. He also scripted a title triumph with a rag-tag Rajasthan Royals team in the Indian Premier League’s first edition in 2008, highlighting his nous and motivational skills.

Even after retirement from all cricket in 2013, Warne, who was inducted into the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame the same year, remained a magnet for news. He subsequently became a highly regarded television commentator and pundit, renowned for his forthright opinions, and was involved with coaching, working individually with current-day leg-spinners. Warne thrilled and inspired in equal measure throughout his career but for all his wizardry with a cricket ball and charisma, like others touched by sporting genius he brought a fair amount of baggage to his chosen profession. There will be no another Warne. His death has left the sports world numb with shock. As West Indies cricket great Brian Lara, a close friend of Warne, said: “We have lost one of the greatest sportsmen of all time.” Rest in peace, Shane Keith Warne. You will be missed always!