When Shane Warne finished bowling in his maiden Test against India at home in 1992, there were few clues that he would become the first spinner to bag 500 wickets. His Test debut was a disaster.
Finishing with figures of one for 150, it appeared to many that Warne had strayed into the wrong profession, looking neither sharp nor threatening.
One year later, he bowled the so-called ‘Ball of the Century’ in England to bamboozle Mike Gatting and a legend was born.
The dying art of leg-spin began to breathe again, all thanks to Warne’s uncanny skill of making the ball ‘talk’ even on unresponsive pitches. Life has never been the same for batsmen since.
Nor has it been for Warne, who also has developed an unfortunate knack of grabbing the headlines for the wrong reasons, which have included scandals involving betting, sex and drugs.
He was fined along with team-mate Mark Waugh for his alleged involvement with a bookmaker before being suspended for taking a banned diuretic just before the 2003 World Cup.
Warne finished the 1993 Ashes series in England with 34 wickets, proving that Australia had found a nugget of a wrist-spinner since Bill O’Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett who bowled between the wars.
He soon became his captain’s first choice because of his extraordinary talent to win matches from hopeless situations. Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh all were indebted to him for many of their successes.
Leg-break, flipper, top-spinner and googly returned in vogue with Warne’s each Test series, giving the batsmen many a sleepless night. The more they tried to solve the Warne puzzle, they more they failed.
One of his most memorable moments came in 1994-95 when he claimed his only Test hat-trick against England.
Warne buried many myths during his illustrious career, the prominent being that spinners are redundant in one dayers.
The West Indies were strongly placed at 165-2 chasing a modest Australian total of 207 in the 1996 World Cup semi-final at Mohali in India when Warne turned the match upside-down with three quick wickets.
Australia eventually won the match by five runs, and there is no prize for guessing the man of the match.
Warne was again the match-winner with four crucial wickets in the famous tied World Cup semi-final against South Africa in England in 1999. The result helped his team to qualify for the final.
Australia went on to win the final against Pakistan, with Warne grabbing four wickets to claim the second successive man-of-the-match award.
India remains the only place where the Warne magic has failed.
The leg-spinner has visited the country twice, only to return as a shattered man with plenty of doubts in the mind.
Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar dominated Warne so much in the ‘duel of superstars’ that the Australia later admitted that the memories of the twin tours had often haunted him in dreams for a long time.
Experts cite the low bounce in pitches as the main reason for Warne’s failures in India.
But it is a testimony to Warne’s legend that even taking into account his travails in India, his place as one of the most influential bowlers the sport has ever seen remains unchallenged. – Sapa-AFP