Published: Mar 05, 2022, 03:45 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 05, 2022, 03:45 PM (IST)
New Delhi: Shane Warne was possibly the greatest leg-spinner to have ever graced the field but his charismatic life at times overpowered his magical fingers that have bamboozled many batters all around the world. At the age of 52, Warne died of a suspected heart attack in Thailand while on a holiday with his friends on Friday evening.
Growing up in his backyard with his brother and playing cricket, Warne took to leg-spin as a fish takes to water. By his own admission, he never really wanted to become a fast bowler and he made the game look simple.
“To me, cricket is a simple game. Keep it simple and just go out and play,” Warne had once said and there is no denying that he followed that to the tee. The other aspect of Warne that always made him stand out was to be mentally ahead of the opposition.
Talking about spin bowling, the 52-year-old had once said, “Part of the art of bowling spin is to make the batsman think something special is happening when it isn’t.” That was Warne. The rate at which he will come up with new deliveries to rattle the batter when in reality the ball will probably not move either way is akin to a bluff master.
At one point, he had a slider, a flipper, a top-spinner, a back-spinner and a zooter — and if you care to ask him the difference, his lips will flicker a smile of pure ecstasy and satisfaction. He knew he had his man.
Warne’s factory had more substitutes than a pharmaceutical company trying to come up with a new drug in order to gain that extra mileage ahead of its competitors. He hardly bowled a wrong one, didn’t have much confidence on the flipper and used it only when it can be a surprise weapon, mostly relying on the big leg-break and the one that goes straight one. But having already announced his armoury with the likes of zooter, slider and back-spinner — he had already cast doubt on the mind of a batter.
Warnie, as many would call him, loved the sport and was always a larger than life kind of character, lived it to the fullest with no regrets. He was much more than cricket and enjoyed every aspect of it, sometimes giving you the impression that he was right from the Hollywood leading a soap-opera life which many would be envious of.
A broken marriage, role in a sex scandal, drug controversy and his addiction to gambling sometimes made the headlines but that only made him human.
“People make mistakes and I’ve probably made a few more than others, but unfortunately mine are also a bit more public. That’s the way it is. You’ve just got to get on with life. After all, it’s not a rehearsal,” he had once said in an interview.
“I have always tried to move on from disappointments as fast as I can,” the 52-year-old revealed in another interaction with the media.
If the great Sachin Tendulkar was cricket’s proudest possession, Warnie was probably cricket’s greatest entertainer. After all, there was never a dull moment with him, be it on the field or off the field.
“His life is Tinder, beers, darts, gambling and cricket. Those five things, that’s it,” said Lawrence Mooney last year who is a Triple M Sydney radio host and a friend of Warne.
‘I liked loud music, I smoked, I drank, and I bowled a bit of leg-spin. I don’t have any regrets,’ revealed Warne in one of his interviews which possibly also sums up his life.
The Earth might have stopped spinning for a while as the King left for the heavens leaving the cricket world poorer but the magic remains.
