Shane Warne’s exploits in international cricket have been recalled with great warmth and admiration for the stellar achievements, as well as deep remorse at his sudden death at a young age last week.
An important – if brief – chapter in a dazzling career was his stint in the Indian Premier League.
Asked to lead a team – something denied to him playing for Australia for a variety of reasons – got his competitive and creative juices flowing. That the Rajasthan Royals looked a hugely vulnerable team packed with inexperienced youngsters only seemed to whet his appetite further.
He was brilliant with ball, even more with strategy and man-management and the Royals pulled off an incredible win. The legend of Shane Warne got a sudden and sharp spike.
The piece which follows was commissioned by Wisden Almanack as an ode to Warne’s retirement from all cricket, which he announced before the fourth season of the IPL began. But while he didn’t play in Indian again Warne played in the Big Bash, which meant the article remained unpublished.
I am reproducing it here with deep felt thanks to the editor. While it is about Warne’s farewell season in the IPL, it is also as much about his brilliant skills, famed rivalry with Sachin Tendulkar and personal charisma – warts and all notwithstanding – which made him arguably the most compelling cricketer of his time.
Shane Warne entered the fourth season of the IPL with characteristic flamboyance – well-arched eyebrows, a trendy hairstyle, various children and the very glamorous British actress Liz Hurley in tow. He did deny using botox however, thus providing some more fodder for debate to the tabloid press.
If his cricket perhaps did not have the same edge and flair which inspired his team, Rajasthan Royals, to win the tournament in its first year his attention-grabbing skills were on full display nonetheless. He accused his home association of a last minute ‘pitch-switch’ which favoured the opposing team and shortly thereafter announced his retirement from cricket.
The last few days leading to his bow-out were inevitably loaded with high drama: Some colourful language against a Rajasthan Cricket, a whopping 50k USD fine, a wicket in his last over, a victory in his last match – sealed with a much-publicised kiss from Ms Hurley — ended Warne’s long and successful career as an IPL cricketer.
This last game was played in front of a raucous, capacity crowd at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. While Rajasthan were out of the running for a place in the play-offs by then the Tendulkar-Warne had obsessed cricket fans in India for almost two decades. While it would be fair to say that the master batsman from India had had the better of the exchanges in Test and One-Day cricket, the spin maestro had been one up where the four seasons of the IPL were concerned.
The much-touted Warne v Tendulkar face-off was brief – nary an over – and ended in a stalemate of sorts. But with astute and aggressive bowling changes and field placements – backed by teammates willing to give their “everything for Warnie” in his send-off, the skipper was able to choke the home team’s strong batting.
Warne’s final over – also the last of the innings – rolled back several of his 42 years and saw him at his aggressive, delightful, deceitful best. Young gun Rohit Sharma is the batsman. The first delivery dips in a bit, beats him in the air. The intended hit over long on is miscued, but the catch goes abegging. The second delivery is smacked over mid-wicket, but only just. The ambush has been set up. Warne tosses one up yet again, Rohit gives him the charge, misses the leg-break completely and is stumped by a mile.
In four seasons, Warne had taken 57 wickets – seventh in the all-time list – at an impressive economy rate of 7.27 runs per over. More telling perhaps was his captaincy record – 30 wins from 55 games – and joint second with Tendulkar, both behind MS Dhoni who had 36 from 59 at that point in time. Pertinently, Warne had captained Rajasthan to one title (Dhoni had two then) while Tendulkar had none.
When he had arrived in the IPL in 2008, he was a retired leg-spinner with a dazzling repertoire of skills (flipper, wrong ‘un, zooter, shooter and whatever else), and a much-touted cell-phone SIM card telephone book full of sizzling numbers. With derring-do, adventure, good spirits and a high dose of fun he took the Royals to an unexpected victory. Warne was not just a charismatic captain but also talismanic for the IPL.
In the three years after he had been both show pony and stellar player, his love for centre-stage willing him on to fight age and fatigue. For a while in the fourth season it appeared that the wizard of Oz might have become the wizard who was, but Warne was soon at nearly his best though it was clear that his team just did not have the wherewithal to go beyond a few wins.
The relative failure of his foreign players and some quirky decisions in team selection and batting order compounded the problem. This led to a marked shift in emphasis in his tweets as the season wore on; there was less about cricket, and more about his new line of lingerie – spinners – which he had launched in India in the early days of the tournament.
Towards the end, however, Warne appeared to have his own knickers in a twist as his spat with Sanjay Dixit, secretary of the Rajasthan Cricket Association got ugly, went public and earned him a reprimand and fine from the IPL Governing Council.
Warne’s proximity to Lalit Modi – even after the former IPL commissioner’s banishment – was no secret. It is likely that he got caught in the middle of a fight between two rival factions in cricket administration. Did this hasten his decision to retire? In typical fashion, he promised to reveal all soon.
Perhaps we haven’t heard the last of Warne yet.
PS: As it happened, the last had not been heard of him in the IPL. Subsequently, however, he wouldn’t feature as player but as consultant (after fences had been mended!) for Rajasthan Royals. There was talk of him returning in this capacity for this season but any such desire — by the franchise and him — was scuttled by divinity’s fell blow last week.
Shane Warne, gone too soon. RIP
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