Bowling, Shane!
As Andrew Strauss missed Shane Warne’s flighted delivery spinning towards the middle stump, greatness beckoned Shane Keith Warne. The round shaped bowler, who revived the dying art of leg spin with his square turners, secured his place under the sun as one of the all time great bowlers to have played the game.
Creating news is not new for Shane Warne. Sometimes he made news and sometimes the news channels made him (Remember that “ball of the century” nonsense?). His ability to turn the ball is legendary, which is fiercely competed by his appetite for good looking women. Many a times, his tongue turned sharper than his deliveries and he made as many enemies on and off the field, which sadly includes his own wife. But everything said and done, for the all the test playing nations (except India) Warne was a nightmare with his lethal leg spin bowling.
And that’s why it’s time to say, “Bowling Shane!”
For a leg spinner, Warne had amazing control on his line and length. You rarely saw Warne loose his control on line and length. He bowled where he wanted to, and turned the ball as much or as little as he wanted to. Players from England, South Africa and New Zealand are reluctant to use their feet against spin and they let Warne have his way! Still, Warne deserves a place in the hall of fame just for reviving the art of leg spin. When you think of leg spin, you can think of only Shane Warne and India’s Anil Kumble among the current players. Leg spin is a difficult art to master. At a time when the finer aspects of test cricket are being killed by the batsman friendly ODIs, you have to salute Warne for his contribution to leg spin bowling.
Where does Warne stand in the list of all time great bowlers? Some believe he was the best. Being an Indian and having seen him suffer against Indian batsmen, I beg to differ. With the new ICC ruling, Murali is a legal bowler now and if you can forget the legal issues with his bowling, he is way ahead of Warne in terms of sheer craft. For any spinner in the world, performance against the Indian batting line up is the litmus test of his capabilities and Murali comes out with flying colors in this test.
Is Warne the best leg spinner ever? I don’t think that either! He has fierce competition from India’s B S Chandrashekhar for that title. There may be other good leg spinners in the past like Subhash Gupte and a host of other leg spinners who bowled as well as or better than Warne did.
In his glittering career on and off the field, Warne always had one wish that was never fulfilled. He could never dominate the Indians either in India or in Australia or even in any neutral avenues. He made his debut against India and Ravi Shastri made a double century in that match! He was later taken to task by Navjot Sidhu. Unluckily for Warne, Indians, good players of spin, always regarded him as easy prey and feasted on his leg spin bowling whenever they had the chance. They came down the track more than batsmen from any other country and negated the spin, which in my opinion, are the major reasons for their success against Warne.
But whatever is the reason of Warne’s failure against India, it’s an undisputable fact that he has succeeded tremendously against all other countries. He is a true legend of the game irrespective of his sexual escapades off the field! So at the time he is retiring and at a time when he has just crossed 700 wicket mark, it’s time to raise a toast to the one of the most charismatic players of the cricket and repeat a phrase which was often said by his team mate Ian Healy.
“Bowling Shane!”
Creating news is not new for Shane Warne. Sometimes he made news and sometimes the news channels made him (Remember that “ball of the century” nonsense?). His ability to turn the ball is legendary, which is fiercely competed by his appetite for good looking women. Many a times, his tongue turned sharper than his deliveries and he made as many enemies on and off the field, which sadly includes his own wife. But everything said and done, for the all the test playing nations (except India) Warne was a nightmare with his lethal leg spin bowling.
And that’s why it’s time to say, “Bowling Shane!”
For a leg spinner, Warne had amazing control on his line and length. You rarely saw Warne loose his control on line and length. He bowled where he wanted to, and turned the ball as much or as little as he wanted to. Players from England, South Africa and New Zealand are reluctant to use their feet against spin and they let Warne have his way! Still, Warne deserves a place in the hall of fame just for reviving the art of leg spin. When you think of leg spin, you can think of only Shane Warne and India’s Anil Kumble among the current players. Leg spin is a difficult art to master. At a time when the finer aspects of test cricket are being killed by the batsman friendly ODIs, you have to salute Warne for his contribution to leg spin bowling.
Where does Warne stand in the list of all time great bowlers? Some believe he was the best. Being an Indian and having seen him suffer against Indian batsmen, I beg to differ. With the new ICC ruling, Murali is a legal bowler now and if you can forget the legal issues with his bowling, he is way ahead of Warne in terms of sheer craft. For any spinner in the world, performance against the Indian batting line up is the litmus test of his capabilities and Murali comes out with flying colors in this test.
Is Warne the best leg spinner ever? I don’t think that either! He has fierce competition from India’s B S Chandrashekhar for that title. There may be other good leg spinners in the past like Subhash Gupte and a host of other leg spinners who bowled as well as or better than Warne did.
In his glittering career on and off the field, Warne always had one wish that was never fulfilled. He could never dominate the Indians either in India or in Australia or even in any neutral avenues. He made his debut against India and Ravi Shastri made a double century in that match! He was later taken to task by Navjot Sidhu. Unluckily for Warne, Indians, good players of spin, always regarded him as easy prey and feasted on his leg spin bowling whenever they had the chance. They came down the track more than batsmen from any other country and negated the spin, which in my opinion, are the major reasons for their success against Warne.
But whatever is the reason of Warne’s failure against India, it’s an undisputable fact that he has succeeded tremendously against all other countries. He is a true legend of the game irrespective of his sexual escapades off the field! So at the time he is retiring and at a time when he has just crossed 700 wicket mark, it’s time to raise a toast to the one of the most charismatic players of the cricket and repeat a phrase which was often said by his team mate Ian Healy.
“Bowling Shane!”
posted by Raju @ 4:44 AM
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