The Wizard of Oz

The bowler at the top of his mark has donned the sun scream like a war paint. He twitches his flannels a bit , giving the keeper some hint. He keeps tweaking the ball in his hand as if giving it practice before he hurls it at the batsman. He starts his bowling run up - no its just a walk, he gathers himself at the bowling crease , the shoulders rotate like a catapult and finally the wrist cast a spell on the ball which loops in the air landing outside the batsman's leg stump. The batsman turns to counter the spin, but the ball knows better, it beats his defence and turns viciously missing the off-stump by a whisker, the keeper moves swiftly to collect the ball and lets out a war cry that resonates around the ground - 'Bowled Shane!!'. Shane Keith Warne has bowled his first delivery of the morning. Phew. Now get ready for the second ball of a mesmerizing 30-over spell from the Wizard of Oz.

Shane Warne along with Brian Lara are two of the most charismatic cricketer's of our time. He was rated as one of the top five cricketers of the century no less (as some experts jokingly put it, he might still have a shot at the title for this century too!) and at the time of retiring was the highest wicket taker in test cricket and took a whopping 1001 international wickets. But statistics tell only the half truth, they do not tell us the way those wickets were taken, how they inspired his team and thrilled the cricket lovers around the world.

At the start of his career Shane Warne found the art he practised almost extinct. The previous decades of relentless fast bowling mainly by the great West Indian sides of the 70s and 80s had rendered leg spinners unfashionable, a liability even. The leg spinner they said inherently lacked control and consistency which frustrated captains. In stead captains went for the fast bowlers or for spin went back to the good old off-spinners who lacked the leg-spinner's subtlety and variations but made up through consistency. Shane Warne changed all that. This leg spinner could turn the ball a mile , had the variations and more importantly had the consistency. Above all he had personality, his sheer body language could get people out. All these ingredients made Warne almost a force of nature which no one could resist. The best illustration of this was the fact that after Warne burst on to the scene all the fast bowling clinics in Australia started running empty as every kid in Australia was snapping his wrists trying to do a Shane Warne!

Warne was more than a cricketer, he was an aura. He spun the ball a mile , he drifted it and made it bounce and turn sharply. But more than that he used to get the batsman out in the mind. Ask the numerous English and South African players who owe their demises to him, he just psyched them out before bowling a ball. However for all his triumphs, he came unstuck against the Indian batsman time and again, you could attribute that to the fact that he bowled to the Indians when he had undergone major surgeries. Though he redeemed his reputation in the 2004 series, the failure against Indian batsman remain a singular black spot on his career.

There are very few people who change the face of the game they play. Pele in Football, Ayertan Senna in F1 or Rod Laver in Tennis. Similarly Warne changed the face of cricket by bringing Leg spin back into focus, he made it de rigueur so that youngsters around the world got inspired to take up the art. The art though did not become easier it just became more attractive. Like other people around the world I became a part of the Shane Warne fan club after seeing his magic on the field. I keenly followed his cricket right from his early exploits in England, the ball of the century, winning the 1999 world cup in England and until his final bow in early 2007. I personally thought that his best period was between 1993 and 1998, his shoulder was strong, he bowled all the variations - leg spin, googly, top spinner and even the flipper. However during his last few years he showed another dimension to him, like the master who discovers the art of simplicity towards the end of his life he was at his most simplest but as effective as ever. All through i admired his skill and hoped to watch him up close some time.

My wish was realised in the winter of 2004 when the Australian team played a test match in Bangalore. I was there and more importantly Warne was there and the first delivery i saw him bowl he got a wicket, VVS Laxman LBW. It was an amazing co-incidence. As much disappointed as i was some part of me was happy that Warne took the wicket. It was always like that when Australia played India, I hoped Warne took a five-wicket haul but India eventually won!

As Warne retired in 2007 the world thought it had seen all he had to offer. They were wrong. The IPL proved otherwise. It showed the side that the world had not seen before , that of a Captain. The way he went about making an underdog team that had no business aspiring to be among the big boys run away with the trophy was just amazing. He was the only reason to watch an otherwise over-hyped and over-commercialized tournament. He proved the primacy of cricketing instinct over the prevalent high-tech mode that cricket had got into with laptops and all. He also proved once and for all the theory of cricket experts had whispered all along that he along with Keith Miller was the best captain Australia never had.

Probably , we will appreciate the true worth of Warne after he's gone and like the generation that saw Bradman we will tell the people around us then that we were the lucky people who saw the great Shane Warne bowl.