Shane Warne

Shane Warne
	Warne in 2015
	Source: [1], 29 November 2005

Shane Keith Warne (born September 13, 1969 in Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Australia), is an Australian cricketer, and captain of Hampshire. He is one of the greatest leg spin bowlers in history — many say the greatest. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. Since October 2004, he has held the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket, and in August 2005, he became the first bowler to take 600 Test wickets. He has, however, been plagued by scandals off the field throughout his playing career.

Career

Warne made his first-class cricket debut in 1990-91, taking 0/61 and 1/41 for Victoria against Western Australia at the Junction Oval in Melbourne. With Australia searching for a leg spin bowler for its Test team, Warne was selected in the Australia B team which toured Zimbabwe in September 1991. His best performance was 7/52 in a four-day match. Back home, he took 3/14 and 4/42 for Australia A against the West Indies in December 1991, and was rushed into the team for the Third Test against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground a week later.

He had an undistinguished debut, taking 1/150 (Ravi Shastri caught by Dean Jones for 206) off 45 overs, and recording figures of 1/228 in his first Test series. His poor return continued in the first innings against Sri Lanka at Colombo in the next year, in which he recorded 0/107. However, a spell of 3 for 11 in the second innings contributed to a remarkable Australian win and arguably saved his Test career.

Despite the inauspicious start to his Test career, he has since revolutionised cricket thinking with his mastery of leg spin, which many cricket fans had regarded as a dying art. He has combined the ability to turn the ball prodigiously, even on unhelpful pitches, with unerring accuracy and a wide variation of deliveries (notably including the flipper).

Many of his most spectacular performances have occurred in Ashes series against England, whose players' inexperience against leg spin bowling made them particularly vulnerable. However, with feats like the famous "Gatting Ball" or "Ball of the Century" which spun sharply and bowled a bemused Mike Gatting in the 1993 Ashes series, most of the credit is Warne's. Conversely, he has struggled against India: his bowling average against them is a poor 47.18, compared with less than 31 against every other country.

Warne has been highly effective bowling in one-day cricket, something few other leg spin bowlers have managed. He is also noted for his exuberant (and sometimes effective) lower-order batting, once famously being dismissed for 99 with a reckless shot when a Test century beckoned, on what was later shown to be a no ball.

He has captained Australia on several occasions in one-day internationals, winning ten matches and losing only one.

In March 2004, he became the second cricketer, after Courtney Walsh of the West Indies, to take 500 Test wickets. He broke the record for most career wickets in Test cricket on October 15 2004 during the Second Test against India at Chennai, overtaking his great spin bowling rival, Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka. (As both Warne and Muralitharan are still playing, the record may change hands again). On 11 August 2005 at Old Trafford, in the Third Ashes Test, he became the first bowler in history to take 600 Test wickets. In 2005, he also broke the record for the number of wickets in a calendar year.

Despite renown principally as a bowler, Warne is also a useful slip fielder and is the highest-scoring Test batsman never to have scored a Test century, with two scores in the 90s.

Controversies

Despite nearly universal recognition of Warne's talents, his reputation with fans and cricket authorities is mixed, owing to a succession of intemperate actions in both his professional and his private life.

Bookmakers

In 1998, Warne was forced to admit that he had taken money to provide pitch and weather reports from a man later discovered to be operating with bookmakers. While such an offence was trivial compared to those of players such as Hansie Cronje and Salim Malik who took money to throw matches, the extreme naïveté Warne displayed struck many observers as somewhat dubious.

Positive drugs test

In February 2003, just prior to the start of the 2003 cricket World Cup, Warne was sent home after a drugs test during the one-day series in Australia earlier in the year returned a positive result for a banned diuretic.

In a public relations blitz, Warne initially claimed that he took only one of what he called a "fluid tablet" – the prescription drug Moduretic – on his mother's suggestion, in an attempt to improve his appearance. This justification was believable, as Warne has battled weight problems throughout his career. Warne claimed ignorance of the banned nature of the tablet he took, as well as much of the drug policy of the Australian Cricket Board (despite extensive briefings on the matter in the past).

Charged with using "a prohibited method to enhance performance", Warne faced a two-year ban from cricket if found guilty. Considerable pressure was placed on the panel considering his case by Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, who in comments described by the head of the Australian Sports Drug Agency as "highly inappropriate", poured scorn on Warne's excuse and stated that Australian sport was well-known for accusing others for cheating but was considerably less enthusiastic about prosecuting its own. Pound's comments were however at least partly endorsed by sportspeople such as former Olympic swimming champion Kieren Perkins, who expressed concern that a lenient verdict would make a mockery of Australia's stand against drugs in sport.

In the end, the panel found Warne guilty of breaching the ACB's drug code, and imposed a one-year ban. It was further revealed, and confirmed by Warne in a subsequent television interview, that he had actually taken two of the pills. Warne's testimony, and that of his mother, was described by the panel as "vague and inconsistent". The panel decided against imposing the full two-year ban because the drug would have had no performance-enhancing effect, there was no evidence that Warne used the diuretic to mask steroid use, and medical opinion stated that steroids would not have enhanced Warne's recovery from a shoulder injury he had suffered several weeks earlier, or assisted his game in any case. A disappointed Warne initially considered appealing, but decided against it, as several people, including Pound, pointed out that the penalty could have been increased if an appeal was made.

During his suspension, he considered working for the St Kilda Saints Australian rules football club as an assistant coach, before the Australian Football League told the club that it would be inappropriate to have somebody suspended for a drug offence advising its players. He also received invitations to play in various celebrity "park cricket" teams, and the newly renamed Cricket Australia reversed its decision on whether Warne, as a contracted player, should be allowed to play in such matches. He also became a TV commentator for Channel 9 in Australia during this time.

Marital infidelities

Warne's private life has also suffered from scandals and been subjected to scrutiny by British tabloid newspapers. He came under criticism for text messaging a woman whilst on tour in South Africa, accused of sending lewd and harassing messages. However the woman, Helen Cohen Alon, who made the claims was subsequently charged with extortion in her own country.

Further allegations of Warne having extra-marital affairs broke in 2005 as Australia began its tour of England in preparation for The Ashes. On June 25, 2005, Warne and his wife Simone announced that they had decided to separate.

Warne's off-field indiscretions cost him various corporate endorsements and offers. On July 13, 2005, Australia's Nine Network announced it would not renew Warne's commentating contract, worth around AUS$300,000 annually. Warne had previously been seen as a future member of the Nine cricket commentary team, and had done commentary work during his one-year ban from cricket in 2003.

Warne has even had a song written about his exploits; Horny Warnie by Horny Warnie & the Whites, which received some airplay in Australia.

Recognition

He was chosen as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1994.
In 2000, Warne was named by a 100-member panel of experts as the fourth of five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. Warne received 27 votes, behind Sir Donald Bradman (100 votes), Sir Garfield Sobers (90 votes), and Sir Jack Hobbs (30 votes). Sir Viv Richards took the fifth place, with 25 votes.
He is one of only two Australian cricketers currently playing the game to have been named in "Richie Benaud's Greatest XI" in 2004 (Adam Gilchrist was the other).
In 2005 he was named as winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality for his performance in the 2005 Ashes.

Sledging incidents

Sledging means the often rough exchange of words between batsmen and bowler. One prominent example is when South African batsman Daryl Cullinan was on his way to the wicket, Warne told him he had been waiting 2 years for another chance to humiliate him. "Looks like you spent it eating," Cullinan retorted. Warney then promptly dismissed the cheeky South African with a well executed flipper.

Test Wicket Milestones

Template:400 Test wickets club

Template:5WI 25 times

Preceded by Steve Waugh	Australian One-day International cricket captains 1997/8-1998/9	Succeeded by Adam Gilchrist

External links