Warne, Shane Keith

▪ 1996

      If any sportsman could be said to have made his name in an instant, it was cricketer Shane Warne, the Australian leg-spinner whose love of taking wickets was equaled only by his love of surfing. During 1995 Warne confirmed himself as a bowler of guile, accuracy, and devastating spin, defying critics who feared he might be more of a passing comet than a permanent star in cricket's firmament, and on December 11 he claimed his 200th Test wicket in only 42 Test matches, the fourth quickest to reach that achievement. But, however many wickets he took in his career, he would be remembered for one ball, bowled to England's Mike Gatting at Old Trafford, Manchester, in the series of 1993. The ball was a perfect example of the leg-spinner's art, pitching on leg stump and spinning viciously past the bat to hit Gatting's off stump. It was Warne's first ball in a Test in England and established a huge psychological advantage for Warne and the Australian team, which lasted into the next Ashes series in the southern summer of 1994-95.

      By the end of that series, just three and a half years after his Test debut in the third Test against India at Sydney in 1991-92, Warne had taken 176 Test wickets at an average of 24.08. He had played just seven matches in the Sheffield Shield before being selected for Australia, and after he had three Tests with figures of one wicket for 300 runs to his name, there were plenty of critics who said he had been blooded too early. But match figures of 7 for 86 in an innings victory over New Zealand early in 1993 were proof that Australia had unearthed an exceptional talent from the most unlikely background.

      Warne was born on Sept. 13, 1969, in Ferntree Gully, near Melbourne. Only relatively late in his teenage years did he decide that cricket might be his game, and even then the Victorian's free surfing spirit threatened to end a career before it had begun. Warne's relaxed manner—allied to his bleached hair and stud earring—made him a folk hero round the world. When Test cricket seemed in danger of becoming more blood sport than noble game, Warne's success promoted the forgotten art of leg-spin, showed that brain can be as important as brawn in winning Test matches, and brought a delightful variety to the recent tedious diet of fast bowling, with good disguise on his top-spinner and fine control on two or three different googlies. Like most Australians, Warne saved his best for England, the old enemy. In the Ashes series of 1993, he took 34 wickets in six Tests at an average of 25.79; in the 1994-95 return series he took 27 wickets at 20.33, including a match-winning 8 for 71 in the second innings of the first Test and a hat trick in the second Test.

      (ANDREW LONGMORE)

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