While idly browsing through the internet on Friday evening after an exhaustive working week, saw the news that Shane Warne died of a heart attack. He was just 52. The news was shocking, to say the least. He was such an effervescent personality that shone even through the TV screens to ordinary viewers like me.
I immediately knew, that people will start reminiscing about his debut against India - against the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Ravi Shastri and of course his ball of the century against Mike Gatting.
I have watched almost all the matches that he played in. Whether, it was Australia/New Zealand, getting up at 3.30 in the morning or in the West Indies, where the matches go late into the night for a person watching in India. I made it a point to follow the Australian team's performance whenever Shane Warne played.
He had a presence about him and when he came into bowl, the match almost always would take an interesting turn. After his brilliant performances in Sri Lanka and in England at the start of his career, I was interested to see how he would play against Indians in India. Unfortunately, he was injured for the one-off test in 1996. The next time he came to India in 1998, he was having some shoulder problems, Yet, he had his moments on the field against the best Indian batsmen. Over the next 2 series in India, he was good in spells but could not conquer the Indian batsmen like he did batsmen of other countries. That said a lot about the skills of the Indian batsmen rather than his abilities. History of cricket over the last 200 years has shown that every player - batsmen or bowler has a bogey team, against whom they struggle. That does not make the player a lesser champion. Shane Warne's bogey team was India which had the best set of Indian batsmen ever in the history of Indian Test cricket.
I watched the magic balls he bowled to superb players like Jacques Kallis and Shiv Narain Chanderpaul. I remember watching the test matches where he took these wickets and how he slowly built up the pressure over a few overs . His theatrics, confidence and the way he set up the players before they were beaten and clean bowled were a treat to watch. They were beaten by his mind tricks as much as his skills on the cricket field.
In ODIs too he was a brilliant bowler. His spells against West Indies in 1996 semi-final at Mohali and against the South Africans in 1999 semi-final at Old Trafford were brilliant. He literally dragged the Australian team to the finals on the strength of his performances and personality.
What struck me most about him was his desire to excel in a field of his choice. Test Cricket, World Series of Poker too where he competed at a world stage, brought out the best in him. He brought out the same level of insight and excellence when he took on commentary after his retirement. I generally, follow cricket by keeping the TV on mute. After watching cricket for almost 40 years, I feel that there is nothing new a commentator, even an ex-player can offer insight on. Yet, whenever, Shane Warne came on to commentate, I would always increase the volume to listen to him talk. He was brilliant in bringing out the nuances in the game that we were watching and almost predicting the turn the game would take. Listening to him, one knew that he was very fair in his commentary. He was harsh on some of the Australian players, for example Mitchell Starc, who took exception to some of his comments and yet generous in his praise when he played well. He was unstinting in his praise, even for the opposition players. He described the game as he saw it. No half measures.
His spin bowling master class with an English news channel was brilliant where he guided young kids on how to bowl wrist spin. He really communicated with the kids and youngsters by being their age in talking to them. This could also have been the reason, that he was able to, as a Captain of Rajasthan Royals, take a bunch of youngsters and win the IPL trophy in the very first season. He was also a very good slip fielder, which was an under rated part of his skills.
Sunil Gavaskar considers him as a lesser bowler than Muttiah Muralitharan and the quartet of Indian spin bowlers of the 1960s and 1970s. Comparison between different generation of players does not give a true picture as there are many variables like standard of players, pitch conditions, playing rules etc. which cannot be compared. Hence, I have just compared the bowling statistics of Warne with Muralitharan as they were contemporaries. One factor to be kept in mind is that the hard Australian pitches do not generally support spin bowling while the Sri Lankan pitches keeping their bowling strengths in mind, generally spin from day one. The statistics in their home countries and against each other make interesting reading. I think Shane Warne clearly stands out.
He is gone at 52. Too young for any one. But, I guess, he lived a full life. If one were to imbibe something from his life, it is the desire to excel and compete at the highest level and even stand out among peers. He did that in Cricket, Poker and Commentary. Go well legend.
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