10 Friday 22nd December, 2006 : The good, the bad and the googly

By Trevor Marshallsea warrant, but nor is he totally a inauspicious debut for Victoria in Gatting Ball landed outside e is a sporting genius and a polarising force. Some have loved February 1991. The following sum- Englishman Mike Gatting’s legs, wayward larrikin, a human him, some loathed him. Others can mer he was selected for his first Test spun across him and hit off stump. Hheadline and tabloid sex not resist taking the good bits, while for Australia, against India in In his 2001 autobiography, Warne scandal regular. He is the most suc- still frowning upon the bad. Sydney. He had played only four described it as “a complete fluke”. cessful bowler has known, Whatever the view, the story of matches for his state, taking a mod- When England next came to and probably, after , Warne is one of the richest sport est eight , yet national selec- Australia, Warne took a hat-trick, this country’s second greatest has produced. It is little wonder one tors had seen something in the yet another hint at the -tak- sportsman. of his nicknames is Hollywood. chubby blond. ing exploits. In 1999 his late wickets As Shane Warne bows out of Warne had more than one bad Most people were wondering lifted Australia to an unforgettable cricket, the gulf he leaves behind, in beginning. While he was a promis- what that was after Warne’s debut, tie in their World Cup semi-final many aspects, will be enormous. ing young Australian Rules football when he was belted to all parts of with South Africa, which was His life and times have been player, Warne’s flair for cricket led the SCG to finish with just one enough to take them to their tri- likened to a soap opera. Much of to a high school scholarship with wicket for 150 runs. But two Tests umphant day in the final. In 2004 that has been of his own doing - Melbourne’s Mentone Grammar, later, the 22-year-old took three Warne became the leading Test such as his involvement with an where scholastic pursuits ran a dis- quick wickets to help ’s wicket-taker of all time, when he Indian bookmaker, doping suspen- tant second to sporting achieve- team beat Sri Lanka in Colombo in took his 532nd victim. He now has sion, and the infidelities which ments. Warne still virtually boasts a stunning finish. 699, and, barring the unbelievable, destroyed his marriage. The rest that he has never read a book. Suddenly, more people could see is certain to be the first to 700 at the has been because of the attention Soon afterwards, Warne’s what the selectors had noticed. The MCG next week. Add to that his 293 inevitably attracted by being natu- extraordinary career was almost most laddish of working class lads one-day wickets, and Warne should rally gifted enough to make a crick- nipped in the bud. After leaving was on his way to a life of success, finish with 1000 in international et ball do more over 22 yards than high school, he went to the celebrity and wealth - but also at cricket. most others have been able to in the Australian Cricket Academy in times crushing pressures and inse- From early on, it seemed there history of cricket. Warne reinvent- , a finishing school which curities. was no feat Warne could not ed the unfashionable art of , has turned out many Test crick- Before long Warne took seven achieve. Staying out of trouble was- and helped revolutionise the game. eters. Warne’s application - especial- wickets in an innings at his beloved n’t one of them. There are many ways to ly his attitude to fitness and a Melbourne Cricket Ground to help Many believed he was let off Shane Warne at his final press conference. Pic. by Johann Jayasinha describe him, and few Australians healthy diet - was found wanting, Australia win a Test against the lightly when fined $8000 by the don’t hold a view one way or the and he was effectively told to leave West Indies. Several months later, then Australian Cricket Board for, other. Perhaps the best is “phenom- by academy chief . he started his first Ashes campaign along with batsman , enon”. He is not quite the idolised In time, Warne got his career with a which has gone agreeing to supply pitch and figure his cricketing deeds should back on track, and he made an down as the ball of the century.The weather information to an Indian bookmaker known only as “John” in return for $AU5000 in 1994. After being dropped from the Test team for the only time in 1999, following a loss in form after shoulder surgery, Warne was also smoking a ciga- rette, despite having signed a $AU200,000 deal to endorse a leading quit-smoking product. The following year he was repri- manded by the ACB for grabbing the bag of a teenaged boy in New Zealand who had photographed him smoking. While his diet - based on piz- zas and baked beans - and his smoking have harmed his fit- Warne enjoys more success on English soil Warne’s bumper wicket haul starts slowly congratulates Warne on his ness, it was his ingestion of two in 1993, famously bowling Mike Gatting with only one scalp in his first Test, Ravi 100th Test wicket, during the third Test diuretic tablets, which can act as with his first delivery in Ashes cricket Shastri caught by for 206. against South Africa in 1994. masking agents for performance enhancing drugs, which would hurt him the most. Warne was suspended for a year at the start of the 2003 World Cup, having taken the tablets, he said, to look good for a TV appearance to announce he would retire from the one-day game after that tour- nament. That betrayed an insecurity within Warne. His long-term mentor, former Test spinner Terry Jenner, said he had “a need to be loved by everybody”. Nasser Hussain succumbs at Trent Bridge This may have caused the best- of South Africa becomes Warne’s 300th Test victim during the second Test during the 1997 Ashes tour; Warne dis- known of his off-field dramas, in Sydney in 1998. missed Hussain six times in the series. his infidelities. Warne was stripped of the Australian vice-captaincy after a lewd text message scandal involving a Leicestershire nurse during a playing stint in England in 2000. More allegations would sur- face on an all too regular basis in the following years, hitting a peak in England in 2005, when Warne was linked to at least two other women. He and his wife Simone, who have three young children, separated later that year. Warne, who bal- Four years later, Warne acknowledges the Playing Sri Lanka, Warne dismisses Hashan Three wickets in the first Test against Sri ances his bad boy crowd’s applause for his 400th wicket dur- Tillakaratne to become the first spinner to Lanka in Darwin takes Warne past behaviour with charity ing the fifth Ashes Test at the Oval. claim 500 Test wickets. ’s tally of 519 Test wickets. work, made salacious headlines again this year after photo- graphs of him in a romp with two women appeared in the News of the World tabloid. He has admit- ted, when discussing his controversies, to be not that bright a bloke. Yet on the cricket field, he could befuddle the minds of the most shrewd of batsmen. While the Australia team has a mas- sive hole to fill, one thing is Warne matches ’s Warne reaches the milestone 600 Test wick- Glenn McGrath and Warne say farewell at certain - things will be a lot qui- world record of 527 Test dismissals with ets with the scalp of Marcus Trescothick at The Oval after their last Test in England fol- eter without him. his 4-669 in the second Test in Cairns. Old Trafford during . lowing a memorable Ashes series. Sydney Morning Herald