RIP Shane Warne: He took the world for a spin and the world loved him back

The 163-gram red cherry was Shane Warne’s inspiration. The 22-yard band was his canvas and that gentle yet strong right wrist was a paintbrush. It was all he needed to create not just art but moments of pure magic that crossed all cricketing boundaries, a love affair that had you, me, John Doe and Jane Doe in his grip. It was a love story beyond the cricket field, in life and now in his death.

Gone too early at the age of 52, he was an artist and the cricketing world was a connoisseur of his art, which was dying until he breathed life into it, like a magician who spent a decade and a half. Decided to work his magic on the generation.

Mike Gatting was embarrassed, Daryl Cullinan was harassed and Herschelle Gibbs marveled during all those years when Warne took the cricketing world for a spin.

On 4 March, it spiraled out of control and shattered everyone. But then the life of geniuses, like his art, is unpredictable. It can be beautiful one moment and cruel another.

Leg-spin is a difficult art to pursue and even more difficult to love. Richie Benaud, in the 1960s, was more accurate and Abdul Qadir, with all his theatrics on the bowling mark, was the entertainment. But Warne was like that Pied Piper from Hamlin who charmed you and before you knew it, you were a part of his journey.

He was not a perfect role model at 22 yards. But there’s a magnetic attraction about flawed characters. Their flaws make them even more endearing and desirable. They make life come alive.

They surprise life and life surprises them. Maybe one can borrow Gideon High’s lines to describe him “Warne was no longer considered merely a bowler, as Marilyn Monroe was to be understood only as an actress.”

When Ravi Shastri would go out to kill a modest white man at the SCG in 1992 with the American sitcom Mullet of the 80s, could one imagine that after figures of 1 for 150 on debut, he would get 707 more wickets ?

At least Gatting didn’t before Warne bowled his ‘ball of the century’ in England. The twitching of his brows and the resignation expression on his face said it all that day.

That look would be repeated billions of times on the face contours of different batsmen. Some are surprised, some are surprised and some are angry with the dust in their eyes.

Sorry guys. The master was at work. He threw leg breaks, googlies, flippers and zooters for fun and yet the batsmen could never read them.

their fight Sachin Tendulkar India would continue to be a part of cricket folklore during the 1998 series. Tendulkar had prepared for the series by making a rough outside his leg-stump to mimic Warne’s leg-break and asked Laxman Sivaramakrishnan to pitch him in those areas.

Whether Warne said “Tendulkar came in my nightmare” is true or an urban legend will never be known, but the battle of “SRT vs SKW” was an addiction long before social media took the place of our lives.

Was he a rebel? Perhaps. Maybe that’s why he remains the best Australian captain Australia has ever had. The kind of outsider who never liked the term cricket coach.

In the last series of his interviews in his second home country India, he vehemently denied in his conversation with PTI that he was anti-incumbency.

“Absolutely not. I was never an anti-incumbency. If I disagreed with something, I would challenge that person. In Coach John Buchanan’s case, I challenged him and I’m not afraid to challenge anyone,” He said, recalling his infamous conflict with his then coach.

“If I challenged John Buchanan about the tactical aspects of the game, it was also about the captain. I would challenge anyone on my team and I would expect to be challenged as well.

“If someone wanted a different game plan, I was always open to suggestions. No matter what, I would always try something new. If I disagreed with tactics or training methods, I would challenge it. Not anti-establishment but just the way I thought of the game,” Warne said.

Adam Gilchrist, in his autobiography ‘True Colors’, recalled a funny incident in which Buchanan organized a boot camp for the national team to increase team engagement and instill discipline.

Before entering the camp, Australian defense personnel put the items on a table and asked them to choose only two things they would need.

Warne, apparently in his jockstrap, came out of the queue and picked up his pack of cigarettes and lighter. He’s had his share of off-field controversies, from briefing bookies to a suspension from the 2003 World Cup on banned substances, not being loyal to his wife Simone, a steamy affair with Liz Hurley and a stint in poker. His love for

He was a bundle of contradictions. In one moment, he could have provided smooth fodder for the British tabloids with whom he shared a love-hate relationship and the next moment, after an all-night meeting, moved to another county and took seven wickets for Hampshire.
Another day in the office and taking wickets in any case was his day job.

And that’s probably why he didn’t fit into Melbourne’s Joliemont Street, which was considered a leader alongside Baggy Green.
Years later, at the age of 38, a new T20 franchise Rajasthan Royals, the cheapest IPLof the inception year, turned him to become the mentor-cum-captain.

And the world saw Captain Shane Keith Warne. Swapnil Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, Neeraj Patel and Ravindra Jadeja Was part of that IPL winning team.

He called Jadeja his “rockstar”, placed a ‘pink doll’ to embarrass the players for being late for practice and asked Jadeja to walk to the hotel once the bus left.

Unconventional methods but they worked and so did his cricketing mind which never survived. For this correspondent, 2014 was a lasting memory at the Shere-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur, Bangladesh.

One evening, wearing a black tee and white shorts, Warne walked into the practice field and the Proteas set their net.

“Dude, are they done with their traps?” He asked and once told that the practice was still on, headed towards the net. His Marlboro packet and lighter were still in his palms. he talked Imran Tahiro for a while and then put his valuables at the non-striker’s end.

He picked up the ball and bowled seven balls quinton de kock, Twice he came out and Warne checked his length.

He was 44 and de Kock could only defend. He picked up his rag and lighter and disappeared, dodging a photographer from the body.
He was swagger at his best and only for that Mr Warne, the world will miss you.