A tribute to Warnie!
Shane Warne was not born to be a great spinner. He was born to be a regular Aussie brawler — drinking tons of beer in the arvo by the beach. Some say — he was arguably the greatest Test Captain who did not captain a national side.
He worked on his skills. It was the belief of that one person who made Shane Warne, Warnie — Terry Jenner(TJ) — Warne was ever thankful to him.
Much has been said about his fat fingers and clawy grasp on the leather and natural ability to spin the ball in the air and drink liters of beer. Or the picture where he is seen smoking on the Lord’s balcony. Who dares speak if Warne smokes? Some tried — John Buchanan — and got socks hurled at them.
Some geniuses thought it was a good idea to sanitize cricket. Have not they sanitized it already?
God, I miss these characters. I miss Warne.
I remember exactly when I got the news that Warnie was no more. I was working on the ground floor of my rented place — which we had then named Bombay Locale Garage during Covid.
I got a text from my mother that Shane Warne died of a stroke somewhere in Thailand — my first reaction was that of disbelief — this is not possible. He was tweeting only a couple of hours ago, paying tribute to the death of another Aussie Great Rodney Marsh. A few days before that he was tweeting about the Russo-Ukraine war.
Let’s come back to Warne.
A true test of a spinner happens in the subcontinent. The thing with any kind of foreign spinner in the subcontinent is — they hardly do more than one tour. Their careers are short-lived. May be 20–30 games if they are good and can average 35–40.
The list is endless — though Warne is not on that list.
Colombo Test, during the Australia tour of Sri Lanka(1992) was the first time, Warnie made any impact in the subcontinent/or anywhere in the world. Having gone wicketless in the game so far — and Sri Lanka needing only 30-odd to win in the last innings, AB(Allan Border) does the unthinkable — he gives the ball to Warnie. An underconfident Warnie was to bowl there for his career — Shane Warne was lacklustre in India’s 1992 tour of Australia — although India lost miserably but against Shane, a lot of runs were scored by Indian batters — for eg: Sachin and Ravi Shastri in Sydney.
Warne took the last 3 wickets — with two of the scalps reading, c Waugh b Warne — something we would see umpteen times in Shane’s career. Shane Warne could never have been Warne if AB hadn’t given him that last spell. He pulled a victory at the proverbial graveyards of the White touring teams.
Come 1993 Ashes — he was a different animal. I think a lightbulb went off or something. Maybe not — I think someone gave him an earful and told him to fuck off. The thing with crazy ones like Warnie is that — if you don’t piss him off or challenge him, he won’t do the best he can. He got 34 wickets. I wonder if Warnie met Geoff Boycott — who is famous for the kind of unkind language he has used for the players who played with him or under him. An exhibit: ‘Yeah mate — not able to score centuries — I got 150 of those, do you want one?’
His debut delivery at the Ashes against Mike Gatting is the stuff of legends. You can’t do that Shane Warne.
Whenever I heard him speak on the TV or elsewhere- he was always very warm. Tough competitor — a genius cricket mind but warm. You make fun of him — do a little banter but don’t fuck with him. Probably, I like Warnie because I liked Sachin growing up. As I write this today, Sachin the player, I love — not so sure about Sachin the person. In India, you need to be politically correct and what that means is you don’t take a stand for anything.
Warnie the player, I always liked but Warnie the person was fucking awesome.
I wish I could have met him. Would have gotten a pic or two with him. He was honest and had no BS. He was around controversy — but who doesn’t like it?
He once told on TV, well sometimes there is so much that the pitch does, I am bowling a leg break and it doesn’t turn and goes straight — people call it flipper and whatnot — well I don’t know what happened there mate!
Would you walk away when someone praised your skills? No, you won’t. Warnie did.
Been two years. But you are still around.