Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
The entire cricketing world feeling numb with the passing away of one of its all-time great legends, Shane Warne at the age of 52 has flooded all media platforms with tributes to the footprints he left in the sands of time.
In what way was his cricket different or what made him the bowler every opponent side feared? Why was it that Shane Warne’s presence made the difference to an already formidable Australian side that rarely registered any loss?
The answer comes, be it any sport, physical activity or war, the battle is won in the mind. Cricket too at one level is an intense mind game and needs mental aggression to back your instincts.
Before we launch into Warne’s exploits, let’s take a look at an example cited by the all-time cricketing great, Sir Garry Sobers in a book he had penned to clear the controversy over Charles Griffiths’ bowling action during the 1965 Test series versus England. The English press had dubbed him “Charlie the chucker.” There were a lot of bad feelings in the air.
In the course of his narrative, Sobers described how his instincts backed by his supportive skipper Frank Worrall worked magic on the field. In those days, the West Indies bowling attack used to be opened by Wes Hall and Charles Griffith. Sobers walked up to his skipper Worrall and asked for being allowed to bowl the first over.
The skipper consented and Colin Cowdrey’s middle stump was airborne by Gary Sobers’ first delivery of the English innings. Sobers also narrated how in several instances, he used to shift his fielding position without any apparent reason. The catch used to come exactly to the position Sobers had shifted to on all such instances. This was about an all-rounder with great cricketing instincts. Shane Warne undoubtedly was one of them, though not as much of a batsman as Sobers.
Warne not being able to captain the Australian team should be regarded as a loss to Australia rather than to him. For Warne was a very attacking cricketer and never doubted his abilities on the field in whatever format of the game. The aggression he carried with him on the ground was infectious and permeated to the entire team.
Talking about Warne’s captaincy in the inaugural IPL season of 2008, the Rajasthan Royals bowlers recalled, “Despite playing in the shortest format, Warne always stressed on bowling to get wickets and not trying to restrict the batsmen by bowling outside the off-stump or short-pitched deliveries. His dogma was to keep getting wickets. Trying to contain runs is a negative stream of thought. With the wickets gone, the batting side will be handling its stress levels.”
Soon after the Rajasthan Royals won the maiden IPL tournament, Shane Warne was a local hero. He had turned into a legend for the state of Rajasthan as they had for long been regarded as the underdogs of Indian cricket sides.
Warne did have a flipside in his social life with many talking about his romances and affairs besides his using cigarettes. He was also known to many in the sporting circles as a great poker player. This man was a legend and has alas passed away much too early.
