Shane Warne did not play a part in the demolition of Malinga and company. That task had been accomplished with panache by Shane Watson and Rahul Dravid. Yet, as the match ended, the cameras had all panned to Warne to track his last few minutes on the cricket field as a player. In a grey Rajasthan Royals sweat shirt, the best leg spinner of all time strode on the field for his final handshakes. It was inevitable that he would be the cynosure of all attention. It was the last time the legend called Shane Warne had walked on the field as a player. As his teammates and the Mumbai Indians? players greeted him for one final time, it was interesting to see Sachin Tendulkar taking a tad bit longer, after all it was a battle that world cricket would never forget. Warne versus Tendulkar always had that extra zing to it.
How will one remember this pleasantly plump man with blond hair who had arrived on the cricket scene in 1992 to be smashed around the park by the Indians? In an otherwise dismal tour Down Under, it was India?s only hour of glory. After such a dismal start, no one gave the young blonde leg spinner any extra thought. He was no better than other spinners who had donned Australian colours to fill in the lone spot for the occasional slow bowler and would soon be discarded. Within a year of being tormented, Shane Warne turned the tormenter. In 1993, in his first ever Ashes, he traumatised the English and bowled what is now called ?the ball of the 20th century?. Just as the ball turned square, leaving Mike Gatting and the world transfixed, it also signaled the rebirth of the art of classical spin bowling and gave cricket its best-ever, all-time brand??brand Warne?.
It is debatable whether Warne is the best ever cricketer to have graced the cricket field. Bradman, Sobers and Tendulkar would come up as comparisons. But that Warne is the most complete cricketing persona of all time has little doubt. His numerous sexual scandals, his controversies with bookies and drugs, his nightlife, his amazing ability to inspire youngsters as captain, a facet never utilised by Australia, and, of course, his almost folk ability with the ball make Shane Warne the perfect cricketer-entertainer.
With Warne around, everything seemed possible. Even when England scored 521 in the first innings of an Ashes Test, the match was not beyond Australia. And when the Australians were more than 100 runs in arrears in the second innings with just two wickets left, Warne would still fight. That he scored 90 at Edgbaston in Ashes 2005, bringing Australia close to the most unlikeliest of victories, tells what Warne is?a complete winner on the cricket pitch.
Gideon Haigh describes Warne?s uniqueness beautifully, ?It?s often stated that Warne made every kid in Australia want to bowl leggers. Warne says in My Illustrated Career: ?My biggest contribution has been to make slow bowling exciting and even fashionable.? But MacGill is still the second-best leg spinner in Australia, and Cameron White and Cullen Bailey do not a renaissance make. It might be exciting. It might be fashionable. But it?s no easier.?
What makes Warne different from his contemporaries like Tendulkar, Lara or Muralitharan? Is Warne different at all? Can we suggest that there exists a ?Brand Warne? when there?s no such thing for a Muralitharan or a Mcgrath? As suggested earlier, Warne is a complete package?outstanding talent, great looks, a more than colourful life and, above all, a penchant for controversies. Warne is what I call a perfect ?TV cricketer?. And with television revenue driving the cricket world in the way it is, he is the best brand ambassador cricket could offer. In other words, Warne is a newsmaker when the others are not and that is Warne?s USP.
Just consider the one simple thing? Warne continues to be a universal brand even in retirement, while Mcgrath, an equally great bowler, remains confined to the cricket purist fraternity.
In trying to remember moments that have now become part of cricket lore and are thus firmly etched in memory, one is forced to turn back to the Tendulkar versus Warne duel at Sharjah in 1998. In fact, even when Tendulkar danced down to Warne at Sharjah during the 1998 Coca Cola Cup and dispatched him to the sightscreen, it was Warne?s reaction that had attracted all attention. While no one remembers Tendulkar?s reaction following the shot, Warne?s is certainly part of the cricket fan?s archive. What followed the shot had a quality of the unreal. Warne, wiping off the sweat of his face in frustration, desperation, or better still, in bewilderment and appreciation. The great Shane Warne, for once in his life, had thrown in the gauntlet. Tendulkar had well and truly won the contest of the titans. But even in winning, Tendulkar had conceded the mantle of entertainer to Warne. Even in defeat, Warne was the winner. He was the central act in the drama when Tendulkar was at best the supporting cast.
And the most interesting aspect of Warne is that he is well aware of his positioning as the hero. Why else would he, after giving an interview to the best cricket writer of our times, Gideon Haigh, call back and ask whether he was good enough or whether his answers were up to the mark. In other words, he wanted to find out whether he had lived up to the title of ?brand Warne? who is, and will be, much more than a cricketer.
People will always debate the issue whether he is the greatest of all and whether he could have captured 1,000 wickets had he continued till Ashes 2010. Such is the romance of ?brand Warne? that despite his scandals, the conservative Australian sporting fraternity has forgiven him and had even called for his return at the age of 40. Perhaps it is for Warne that the term ?performer? was coined. And there are no prizes for guessing who, even in retirement, will remain one of contemporary cricket?s best-ever performers.
The writer is a sports historian