Mike Gatting Devastated By Shane Warne’s Death, Recalls Turn of Events That Led to the Ball of the Century
Mike Gatting Devastated By Shane Warne's Death, Recalls Turn of Events That Led to the Ball of the Century
New Delhi: Former England batter Mike Gatting said he is still not able to believe that Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne died of a suspected heart attack on Friday at the age of 52 and paid an emotional tribute to the Aussie legend by recalling the ‘ball of the century’ that made Warne a household name in the nineties.
“We understood he was a very talented sportsperson. He liked his surfing, he was a typical sort of Aussie larrikin, as they called them, who could spin the cricket ball,” Gatting told BBC 5 Live.
“We didn’t know much more about him than that, and in the match before they told him to just bowl his leg-breaks and he didn’t bowl his flippers, and topples (top-spinners), and googlies, but when he got down the other end there, I was just trying to watch the ball,” said Gatting.
“I knew it was a leg-break and I knew it was going to spin, you could hear it coming through the air from down the other end, and then just at the last yard or so, as a good leg-spinner does, it just drifted in, and it drifted just outside leg stump and just turned out of nowhere, a long, long way.
“I’m quite a wide chap and it got past me as well as everything else and just clipped the off bail, and I was just as dumbfounded as I am now to hear that he’s died,” added Gatting.
The 64-year-old Gatting was in the twilight of his international career when Warne was emerging, but 30 years later he remains astonished by the way Warne got him out that day.
“I can’t believe it, and I couldn’t believe it then, and it was just one of those that sort of probably helped him,” Gatting said. “He was a pretty confident bloke already, but I’m sure that gave him a huge amount of confidence and took him to the next level, and he kept going up levels after that.”
On Warne’s death, Gatting said, “It’s been just devastating really, and unbelievable. When you think he’s 52, and he’s been an absolute legend in the game, and I don’t use that word lightly either. It’s just unreal. We’ve lost a great cricketer and a great guy. I’m very, very happy to have called him a great friend.”