Muristek
Rohit Mahajan
SHANE Warne wasn't immortal. The rumours were baseless.
The master of spin, the keeper of the secret is gone. At just 52. If cricket is art, spin bowling is the heart of that art. Wrist-spin is its most mystifying, most difficult form. And Warne made the heart of leg-spin throb with excitement that was unprecedented. It is unrepeatable. The magic is over.
In memory of: Tributes to Warne are seen outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. reutersWarne took manifold secrets with him — the secret of imparting a million revolutions on the ball, the secret of the drift that took the ball out of eye of the right-hander before dipping... The turn, the googlyhellip; The zooter that wasn't, the flipper that was...
None of this was secret, really. It was dissected threadbare of computer screens by batsmen and analysts. It wasn't inexplicable — the 'two fingers down, two fingers up grip', the churn of the wrist, the flick of the fingers, the flight — for all of it could be explained by the laws of physics. What was inexplicable was his exclusivity on the magic ndash; no one else could do what he could. Add to it the flair, the gamesmanship, the thrill he brought with his kingsize persona — and he was magical.
What was the secret behind the rise of the chubby, florid-faced lad who was mercilessly crushed by Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar on debut in January 1992? For this writer, one abiding memory of that dissection of Warne is his dejection — shaking his head after being attacked by Shastri and Tendulkar. His debut figures of 1/150 off 45 overs. It was to get worse in his second Test, when he failed to get a single Indian wicket. After two Tests, his bowling average was 228, with one wicket.
Then tour of Sri Lanka was difficult. He took three wickets in two Tests and averaged 52.66, His future seemed bleak — but how wrong we were!
Australia kept the faith, for it was predicted that the lad would take 500 Test wickets. He did take 500 Test wickets. And more.
Indian problem
Indian batsmen of the previous era read spin better than now. And leg-spinners? They ate them. They read the ball from the hand, and Dilip Vengsarkar was reported to shout 'googly' and attack the ball. The great Abdul Qadir averaged 51.51 against India, and 69.16 in India; his near-clone, Mushtaq Ahmed, averaged 37.50 the one time he came to India.
Curiously, many Indian batsmen had trouble against off-spinners and left-arm spinners — remember offie John Bracewell, who won New Zealand a Test in Bangalore in 1988? Or left-armer Phil Edmonds and offie Pat Pocock, who took 27 wickets in 1984-85 when England beat India 2-1 in India? Saqlain Mushtaq won Pakistan the Chennai in 1999 with 10 wickets and averaged 28.28 for 25 wickets against India.
Sunil Gavaskar has received criticism for saying that Warne's record against India was "pretty ordinary", but Gavaskar's comment is not baseless. Warne finished with an average of 47.18 against India, taking 43 wickets in 14 matches, with one five-wicket haul. If someone must be censured for speaking the truth, let Gavaskar be censured ndash; it's a fact and Gavaskar did not lie, even if he spoke this truth so soon after Warne's death. But if the record against India was ordinary, it wasn't because he bowled badly or because he was not a legit spin grandmaster — it was so because Indians were masterful against leg-spin. There's no man better than Ian Chappell to explain this, as he did in 2020:
"I asked Warnie after the series, 'How do you think you bowled?' And he said, 'I didn't think I bowled that badly. He (VVS Laxman) was hitting 'not half-volleys' wide of mid-on — how he did I got no idea. It was pure genius.'
"But I said (to Warne): 'He's coming out three paces and driving you wide of mid-on and the next ball you go a little higher and shorter, trying to fool him, and that guy goes back and pulls you for four. That's not bad bowling mate, that's bloody good footwork'."
That was bloody good batting by Laxman and Dravid and Tendulkar in 2001. And before that by Tendulkar, Azharuddin and Sidhu in 1998, and by many others in their battles with the greatest spinner in the world.
Troubles of others
It can be argued that the story of glory of Warne was, rightly, spun by those he tormented most ndash; the English (195 wickets at 23.25), the South Africans (130 wickets at 24.16), the New Zealanders (103 wickets at 24.37) and the Pakistanis (90 wickets at 20.17) That's 518 wickets out of 708 he took in Test cricket.
But the story of glory wasn't untrue. Warne was magical. Warne in full flight provided rare thrills ndash; the ball tossed up was like a coiled cobra: Would it spit up to the throat? Would it spin from far outside leg and strike the top of off? Would it snake through the legs of the batsman and crash into the wicket? Would it shoot straight and trap him LBW? You could never tell, and the batsman could never tell, and the mystery of it all made Warne immortal.
Wrist spin is the art of the greats, for it's very, very difficult to control — the wrist and the fingers are whirring, and the ball slips or falls short or wide, and the right-hander then inflicts terrible punishment. Finger spin is easier, and the joke is that just about anyone can bowl passable off-spin.
To be a leg-spinner of any quality, you have to be very special. You need immaculate control and you need a great, strong heart to accept adversity — as Warne did against India, right from 1992.
That heart stopped beating at only 52. The last two years, death has been a fearsome stalker and people much younger than Warne were snatched away. The death is Warne is yet another wrench, striking at the heart of the sport we love.
Warne had health issues before death
KOH SAMUI: Australian cricket great Shane Warne had experienced chest pains prior to his death in Thailand and had asthma and some heart issues, Thai police said on today, citing information from Warne's family. One of the finest bowlers of all time whose talent and personality transcended cricket, Warne died aged 52 on Friday a day after arriving on the island of Koh Samui for a vacation. "He had asthma and had seen a doctor about his heart," Yuttana Sirisombat, superintendent at the Bo Phut police station on Koh Samui, told reporters Asked about any illnesses before his death, he said: "We learned from his family that he had experienced chest pains when he was back home in his country." Warne was discovered unconscious in his room in a villa in the Bo Phut area of the popular holiday island. —Reuters