This morning I was reading an article in Hindu written by Nirmal Shekar paying tribute to a Legend who just announced his retirement from international cricket. He is none other than the one who answers to the name of Shane Warne. Over the years I have read quite a few articles of Nirmal Shekar and one can see a poetic flow in all his articles. His creativity has always amused me, particularly his articles on Roger Federer are of top quality. This has now inspired me to attempt an article on Shane Warne, here we go….
It was sometime in early 1992 during a Sydney test match when Shane Warne made his debut and got butchered by Indian batsmen Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar. Not sure the number of people who had thought that this man would go on to become one of the greatest ever to have stepped into the cricket field. 14 years down the line, one can feel privileged to have lived in an era when this legend has lived. Mr. Venkatraghavan once said that he could hear a fizz when Shane releases the ball that goes on to bamboozle the batsmen. The kind of variety and control that Shane possesses in his art is just unmatched by any of them who ever practiced the art of leg spin bowling.
Nirmal Shekar, in his article dwelled into the aspect of the kind of symphony that his hands create along with the leather sphere and had made comparisons to Van Goh and Pandit Ravishankar. It is the body language that Shane exhibits on the cricket field distinguishes him from the other lesser mortals. Historically, it is believed that fast bowlers are aggressive and one can recollect many names to validate this right from Jeff Thomson till Allan Donald. Imagine a man taking just four steps for his delivery stride with his left foot landing on the crease, shoulder, elbow and wrist in perfect position to release the ball to do exactly the same thing that his mind wants to do exhibiting the aggression that will make the batsmen scared. It is often said that Illayaraja writes his musical notes that when played will be exactly the same as what he had in his mind. An equivalent of that will be Shane’s control over the delivery, be it flipper, leg break, googly etc. the consistency with which he delivers them the way he wants to is just unparalleled, may be Kumble, McGrath and Murali will be the closest challengers.
Everyone knows about the ball of the century that was sent down to Mike Gatting in an Ashes test match, the trajectory of the delivery starting outside off stump, making that parabolic descent to outside leg stump, hitting the pitch and taking a turn to clip the off stump bails. My heart goes to Mike Gatting, for once he would have thought that there is very little that he could have done to not getting out for such a delivery. I can recollect another incident in a Sydney test match against Pakistan with the last ball of the day to be delivered by Shane and Basit Ali was taking guard to face the ball. It is actually interesting to notice how Basit Ali was set-up to get out in that over. Continuous chat with Ian Healy on subjects that was as irrelevant as to which beer to have in the evening to challenging whether Basit will be able survive that over, it was an intriguing battle between mind of the batsmen and this great bowler. Just before the last ball was delivered Shane had made some fielding changes that left the batsmen wonder on what will be thrown at him. History will say that Shane delivered the ball with the same trajectory as it was sent to Mike Gatting and Basit was confused whether to use the bat / legs and ends up making a big front foot stride and the balls passes through the legs to hit the stumps. If anyone gets to see that video you can hear Richie Benaud saying “He has done him between the legs” in the commentary box. Now that was a special moment.
It is not that this champion bowler was never challenged, no one apart from Sachin, Lara and Sidhu has played him better, even the great Rahul Dravid had his measure of struggle against this great man. Sachin’s battle against Shane will be etched in everyone’s memory, with a special mention on the Chennai test where Sachin hit Shane for a six over midwicket playing against the spin, that was genius v/s genius. However, there is this special moment between Lara and Shane in a one day match where West Indies required nearly 100 runs in the last 10 overs to win the match. Lara was woefully out of form and he had just scratched to a 50 in 99 balls in that match, the defining moment came when Lara took strike against Shane and ended up scoring more than 30 runs in the last two overs of Shane and when Lara was out, he had made 90 runs of 110 balls and West Indies went on to win that match.
If someone has to take the risk of summarizing on what makes Shane a legend, it has to be his aggression, natrural talent, passion, spirit and above all his control over the art of leg spin bowling that has allowed him to reach this scale. There will be a huge hollow after he leaves, one wishes to see him associated with cricket for the years to come and be successful in all his endeavors.
It was sometime in early 1992 during a Sydney test match when Shane Warne made his debut and got butchered by Indian batsmen Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar. Not sure the number of people who had thought that this man would go on to become one of the greatest ever to have stepped into the cricket field. 14 years down the line, one can feel privileged to have lived in an era when this legend has lived. Mr. Venkatraghavan once said that he could hear a fizz when Shane releases the ball that goes on to bamboozle the batsmen. The kind of variety and control that Shane possesses in his art is just unmatched by any of them who ever practiced the art of leg spin bowling.
Nirmal Shekar, in his article dwelled into the aspect of the kind of symphony that his hands create along with the leather sphere and had made comparisons to Van Goh and Pandit Ravishankar. It is the body language that Shane exhibits on the cricket field distinguishes him from the other lesser mortals. Historically, it is believed that fast bowlers are aggressive and one can recollect many names to validate this right from Jeff Thomson till Allan Donald. Imagine a man taking just four steps for his delivery stride with his left foot landing on the crease, shoulder, elbow and wrist in perfect position to release the ball to do exactly the same thing that his mind wants to do exhibiting the aggression that will make the batsmen scared. It is often said that Illayaraja writes his musical notes that when played will be exactly the same as what he had in his mind. An equivalent of that will be Shane’s control over the delivery, be it flipper, leg break, googly etc. the consistency with which he delivers them the way he wants to is just unparalleled, may be Kumble, McGrath and Murali will be the closest challengers.
Everyone knows about the ball of the century that was sent down to Mike Gatting in an Ashes test match, the trajectory of the delivery starting outside off stump, making that parabolic descent to outside leg stump, hitting the pitch and taking a turn to clip the off stump bails. My heart goes to Mike Gatting, for once he would have thought that there is very little that he could have done to not getting out for such a delivery. I can recollect another incident in a Sydney test match against Pakistan with the last ball of the day to be delivered by Shane and Basit Ali was taking guard to face the ball. It is actually interesting to notice how Basit Ali was set-up to get out in that over. Continuous chat with Ian Healy on subjects that was as irrelevant as to which beer to have in the evening to challenging whether Basit will be able survive that over, it was an intriguing battle between mind of the batsmen and this great bowler. Just before the last ball was delivered Shane had made some fielding changes that left the batsmen wonder on what will be thrown at him. History will say that Shane delivered the ball with the same trajectory as it was sent to Mike Gatting and Basit was confused whether to use the bat / legs and ends up making a big front foot stride and the balls passes through the legs to hit the stumps. If anyone gets to see that video you can hear Richie Benaud saying “He has done him between the legs” in the commentary box. Now that was a special moment.
It is not that this champion bowler was never challenged, no one apart from Sachin, Lara and Sidhu has played him better, even the great Rahul Dravid had his measure of struggle against this great man. Sachin’s battle against Shane will be etched in everyone’s memory, with a special mention on the Chennai test where Sachin hit Shane for a six over midwicket playing against the spin, that was genius v/s genius. However, there is this special moment between Lara and Shane in a one day match where West Indies required nearly 100 runs in the last 10 overs to win the match. Lara was woefully out of form and he had just scratched to a 50 in 99 balls in that match, the defining moment came when Lara took strike against Shane and ended up scoring more than 30 runs in the last two overs of Shane and when Lara was out, he had made 90 runs of 110 balls and West Indies went on to win that match.
If someone has to take the risk of summarizing on what makes Shane a legend, it has to be his aggression, natrural talent, passion, spirit and above all his control over the art of leg spin bowling that has allowed him to reach this scale. There will be a huge hollow after he leaves, one wishes to see him associated with cricket for the years to come and be successful in all his endeavors.
4 comments:
Machi,
Your post is complete with facts, statistics and bowling techniques. Nice post da. Way to go. Please register your blog with www.blogdesam.com and get your blog noticed.
//It is often said that Illayaraj writes his musical notes that when played will be exactly the same as what he had in his mind. An equivalent of that will be Shane’s control over the delivery, be it flipper, leg break, googly etc. the consistency with which he delivers them the way he wants to, is just unparalleled, may be Kumble, McGrath and Murali will be the closest challengers.//
That was an impressive reference. I bet Cricket and Raja are still your greatest passions.
:)
Gud One man..Keep it coming...
Nayagan
I read many things on Warney, but this one is well written article on him.
I would like to add my dues to this lovely article.
Warney, spin Mozart has best five fingers in his right-hand and also he is a spin-bowler with fast-bowler aggression.
This makes him lethal.
Hey Aravind, rightly said, his aggression is the key. If you take out his personal life and all the controversies he should be one of the great role model for any young sportsman.
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