A Journey with Twists and Turns | Tribute to Box office Baadshah ‘SHANE WARNE’

Just like how he insanely turned the ball in his life, he turned things around in the same way to leave us all of the sudden…

IPL fans can never forget a scene scripted in its maiden final in 2008. CSK was playing against RR and set a target of 164. When RR was chasing that score, fans could see a man in the dugout who was filled with life. As a passionate leader, he was motivating his fellow teammates and pouring that thirst for success into them. As a lifetime entertainer, he was confusing the cameraman about whether the feed from the field or dugout had to be captured. His aura covered that entire space and won them the first-ever title of IPL. He was none other than the great wizard of Spin World, Shane Warne.

Earlier before the era of Shane Warne, fast bowlers were the ones who were famous for grabbing the attention, right from the run-up till the ball delivery. Their wicket celebrations can take the parts of the hearts of the batting side’s fans even. And then when this man who can arrest the batsman by spinning web had come, things started travelling in different dimensions. As a matchless leg spinner he had showcased his passion for the game, in every ball, he delivered out of the 51000+ balls he delivered across all the international formats.

After a small run-up, when the ball was bowled by him, it progressed like a poem in the air to pitch the ground somewhere away from the leg stump, but on the sudden, would change its plan and went for a very big turn around and hit the stump, just to stun the batsman. That was always like pure witchcraft. Physics might call it MAGNUS EFFECT. But truly it was because of the fire in his eyes and magic in his hands that took control over the air. 

How can someone forget his first ball in his first Ashes which revealed the asset of Australia. It turned ridiculously and unbelievably to hit the off stumps of Mike Gating after pitching outside the leg stump!!! Even though Mike was a batsman who could play spin balls very well fell into the trap of Warne. It is called “The ball of the century”. Allan Border once described that incident as “All the sudden a legend was born”. Yes! it all happened beautifully all of a sudden, like how he left us suddenly. He was full of surprises. With only just 7 first-class matches, in his experience timeline, to prove his calibre this man appeared from nowhere only to overrule the cricket arena.

Ashes was his fort. Right from his first one to the one at the later part of his career in 2005, his travel was remarkable. In the 2005 season, he took 40 wickets and dominated the game single-handedly. This charismatic conqueror added colours and flavours to the test format too. Not just in Ashes, on all the occasions, a batsman who had to face him must be terrified the previous night to go to bed as he had to face Warne’s ball the next day. If that is the situation in overseas conditions, think of the conditions in the Subcontinent. Shortly saying, he was unplayable. Earlier it was the spin quartet of India who mastered the art of deceiving the batsman and taking wickets. Later this white fox rejuvenated spin bowling, especially leg-spin bowling, to keep that beautiful technique alive. 

The sweet rivalry between Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralitharan to get the most number of wickets in tests was ever fresh. Muthiah Muralitharan took 800 wickets but Shane Warne, even though he played in more matches, took 708 wickets alone. But one should not forget the fact that Warne played most of his matches in the soil which doesn’t show a bit of mercy to spin bowlers. Even in those pitches, he managed to bring perfection in his craft of spin bowling and did wonders. “Where my ability to spin a cricket ball came from, I honestly don’t know. I can only think that I was born with it. I have a skill as a cricketer and fortunately, cricket found me”, Warne once said these words about his spin bowling. Of course, everyone has to accept that he was a born legend. His 10 wicket hauls in 10 matches say the rest of the story.

Even in the Australian yellow jersey, his performance in the ODI format was incredible. Right from 1993 to 2005, he picked 293 wickets at a good average of 25.73.

His bowling action, his facial expressions, his way of appealing, his words, smiles and looks, exchanges with the batsman and then with the umpires, everything added spices to his spin and made it even more interesting and special. Once Warne said that “To defeat the batsman, you have to deceive him first. You have to make them believe that something dangerous is happening over there with the ball when nothing is happening actually”. He did it ‘n’ a number of times in his career.

Like Kohli vs Anderson, the encounter between Shane Warne vs Sachin was an evergreen battle to be remembered. Even though Warne was known for sledging batsmen and teasing them now and then and used to follow customised mocking strategies for everyone, he never used it against the master blaster. But the real fun was alive all the time when there was a head-on collision between this duo. One such match to be recalled happened in the Chennai Chidambaram stadium, in the year 1998, during the Border Gavaskar trophy. In the first innings, Warne sent Sachin for 4 runs, but in the second innings, God gave him back and scored 155 runs. He made the economy of Warne reach the peak in that innings. This sweet combat continued in many other matches. But even after that, their respect for each other was always on the positive side. 

His ball spoke epically all the time. But sometimes even his bat also acted as a life-saving jacket for Australia. Warne is one of the first batsmen to score 3000+ runs across all the formats, even without scoring a single century. 

Some controversies had taken him to black spots but his love for the game always kept him in limelight. 

The vibrations set because of the shock air currents sent by this shark with the ball are still left out in the air. With the twist in the wrist, he taught the meaning of the word torque and now the words in the spin dictionary, flipper, googly, top spinner are looking for the man who owned them in his arsenal. 

Warne has been loved, admired, and celebrated so much by cricket fans. His spin folk tales will be circulated for the ages to come…

*WE MISS YOU LEGEND!!!*