If you couldn’t sleep last night, you’re not alone. If you’ve been walking around your living room just muttering, “but he’s Shane Warne. No, that couldn’t have happened to Shane Warne,” you’re not alone. If his sudden passing away feels personal, like you’ve lost someone at home, even if the closest you ever came to Shane Warne was watching him weave his magic on TV, then you’re not alone.
For, in the trying hours following the heart-wrenching announcement that Shane Warne was no more, and it still doesn’t feel real typing this, what we’ve learnt is that he meant a lot more to us than what any of us had imagined. He wasn’t just a legendary spinner whose magical skills we simply grew up admiring. He wasn’t just the first cricketer to really go mainstream and become a crossover celebrity, if not an integral part of pop culture around the world. He wasn’t just the bowler who delivered the ball of the century.
Like he did with hundreds of batters around the world, Shane Warne had unbeknownst to us become a part of our very psyche. Some have since said he defined genius with a ball in hand. It’s safe to say that what he did if anything was more cerebral. Such was his allure and magnetism, the leg-breaks and flippers aside, that Shane Warne ended up defining their very existence for a generation of millennials as they entered a new millennium.
Legend. Icon. King. There’s never been a dearth of superlatives for Shane Warne. And they will only grow in the days and months and years to come. What he was most of all though was the ultimate Pied Piper of Cricket. And it wasn’t just the series of embarrassed batters who were dancing to his tunes. It was all of us too. For, every time he set off on a victory lap with the raised index finger or every time he had Bill Lawry screaming, “he’s gottt heeeeem. What a ripperrr…” Warne had not just got the hapless batter. He’d got you too.
No wonder it hurts so much. No wonder you’re left with a feeling of “what happens now?” No wonder we’re all left with this significant void that seems unfillable. It’s basically our collective realisation that he’d become a much bigger part of all of us than we ever thought possible.
He did the same for cricket too. To the extent that the words Shane Warne have become a part of the cricketing lexicon around the world. You don’t need to say much more. Whether you were playing gully cricket in Mumbai during the 1990s or you’re umpiring an under-14 game in Adelaide in 2022, the reference point of a cricket ball that turns is Shane Warne. And like with every era-defining artist before him, his art shall remain immortal. Like they go, “it’s a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh” while referring to paintings even centuries after their creators have left; a leg-break that drifts towards a right-hander’s leg-stump or away from the left-hander’s off-stump, pitches and turns back sharply towards middle stump, as if attracted by a magnet, will be “a Shane Warne” till the end of time.
There have been innumerable tributes flowing in from around the world from different facets of society in the last few hours. The ones that really tell you the impact that Warne had on leg-spin, what was in 1993 an artform in strife, is the innumerable spinners in the last two decades who’ve spoken about having wanted to bowl spin solely because of him. And there’s not a single cricketer in the world, wannabe or otherwise, who can claim to have not had a go at the Shane Warne action with or without a ball in hand since 1993.
“It fits perfectly,” were Warne’s words as he put his Baggy Green on his head for the first time ever, as seen in a news clip about his Test debut against India at the SCG. What also fit perfectly was his larger than life personality. And the fact that through all the trials and controversies off the field that surrounded his incredible feats on the field, Warne always seemed to stay the same, from the field to the commentary box to social media. Forever irreverent, highly-opinionated and thriving on having the final word. So enchanting was he on the cricket field, the audacious strokeplay and excellent slip catching included, though that in those moments he had you so hooked that nothing else seemed to matter.
For all the ego he had as a bowler, and that was part of his dominance as the foremost practitioner of his craft, Warne gave back to cricket more selflessly than most others of his ilk. Whether it was the number of young cricketers he influenced by putting over in India and England or the fact that he was forever brandishing new ideas or inventions, however outlandish at times, to enhance the sport that had given him so much. If he was openly critical of some with the commentator’s hat on, he would also display childlike excitement over a young talent, regardless of whether he was Australian or not. If he saw a wrist spinner he liked, Warne would volunteer to help the youngster out by taking him under his wings.
Warne could also take a joke on himself like few celebrities of his stature do. He never minded living up to his caricature either. Once during the 2017 Champions Trophy he was spotted in the Edgbaston media centre elevator donning an England jersey. When he was informed that not only was it outrageous but also didn’t fit him, Warne simply laughed and agreed with you, blaming a lost bet with Sourav Ganguly for his predicament. There was no air of “do you know who you are talking to?”
Nobody did more justice to the joy of living than Shane Warne did. Come to think of it, no wonder he was forever in a hurry for those playing to “move the game on”, as he became famous for saying on commentary. And no wonder he would start getting restless about declarations and bowling changes. That’s what he did with his own life after all. How else could he have fit in the amount of life that everyone else might’ve in 90 years into the 52 he eventually lived for.
He came, he saw, he bamboozled. From start to finish. And right at the end, he did a Shane Warne. He bowled us round our legs. And all we could do was like Mike Gatting stand in shock and awe with our mouths agape.
A state memorial service for Warne will be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the evening of March 30. (Cricbuzz)
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