The greatest cricketers of all time - No. 5

Continuing with our series on the greatest cricketers of all time, here’s No. 5 on our list.

No. 5 – Shane Warne

Leg spin is widely regarded as one of the more difficult arts in cricket. In the 1980’s, it seemed to be undergoing a slow and painful death. Abdul Qadir was holding down the fort on his own. Spin in the Test arena was largely represented by off-spinners tasked with holding up one end. It was the golden era of pace bowling, with the legendary West Indians running rampant.

As often happens, other teams tried to replicate their winning formula. Sides were often packed with fast bowlers, and spinners were looked over. Then in 1993, it all changed with one ball. A young, blonde-haired Aussie was bowling to England’s best player of spin, Mike Gatting. The ball drifted, ducked and then spun to clip Gatting’s off stump. Gatting merely looked on in disbelief. It was voted as the ‘ball of the century’, and it kick-started one of the greatest careers cricket has ever seen.

That man is, of course, Shane Warne. He ended his phenomenal career with 708 Test wickets, second on the all-time list after Muttiah Muralitharan. In the process, he gave new meaning to the word ‘swashbuckling’, combining substance with style to become one of the few genuine rockstars in the sport.

Warne’s career was not a smooth one. His early years were littered with minor transgressions as he lived up to the ‘bad boy’ tag the media had granted him. However, that didn’t stop him from taking wickets. He was, series by series, re-invigorating not just leg spin, but spin in general. Kumble and Murali also broke on to the scene at around the same time, and spin bowling was embarking on a golden era of its own.

Warne was capable of spinning the ball an incredible amount (Andrew Strauss can testify to that), but that was not all he had in his locker. As time went on, he developed plenty of variations. The flipper was probably the one he relied upon the most. In one patch of play during the legendary Ashes series of 2005, Warne was bowling to Ian Bell. He had bowled 3 big turning leggies in succession, which Bell had left comfortably. The next one, landing in the same place, didn’t spin. Bell left this one too, and he couldn’t have been more plumb.

Warne was one of the great thinkers of the modern game. It is often said he was the greatest captain Australia never had, and it is hard to argue with that assessment. He had very successful stints at both Hampshire in county cricket and with Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. His time with the latter was arguably more impressive. In the first season of the IPL, Rajasthan were the rank outsiders – they had spent far less than anybody else at the auction and were expected to be the whipping boys of the top teams. But with Warne at the helm, that was not to be. He nurtured the side by developing a great sense of unity within it, and got the best out of all his young Indian charges. The campaign ended with an historic win for Rajasthan, which will go down as one of Warne’s greatest achievements.

There were some dark times too. His year-long ban for the use of a banned substance was probably the nadir. But he always came back strong. Despite Australia losing the Ashes in 2005, Warne still took 40 wickets. It was a remarkable performance and one that kept Australia in the contest till the very end. It is a great shame that for many, Warne’s dropped catch of Kevin Pietersen in the final Test is what will be remembered of the series.

But, as much as that loss would have hurt him, the 2006/07 5-0 whitewash to reclaim the urn would have given him enough elation to compensate. Warne was again brilliant and decided to retire on the highest of high notes alongside his great partner Glenn McGrath.

Australia proceeded to try 10 different spinners over the next few years, and it was a sign of Warne’s greatness that two years after his retirement, there were genuine calls to bring him back to Test cricket.

Warne’s influence on the game is being seen in the countless young leggies currently gracing the game. The effect is not only being seen in Australia; even in England there are plenty of young leg spinners trying to emulate their hero.

Whilst there will doubtless be plenty of good spinners in the future, I doubt whether any will have quite the same impact as Warne did. And if if they do, we will be in for quite a treat.

And if you want a treat right away, just take a look at the clip below, which highlights the 8 best balls ever bowled by Warne, with a few words from the great man himself. The utterly bamboozled expressions on all the batsmen’s faces puts things into even better perspective. Sheer magic!

These are the other players who have made it so far:

No. 20 – Bill O’Reilly; No. 19 – Fred Trueman; No. 18 – Dennis Lillee; No. 17 – Sunil Gavaskar; No. 16 – Steve Waugh; No. 15 – Kapil Dev; No. 14 – Malcolm Marshall; No. 13 – Glenn McGrath; No. 12 – Imran Khan; No. 11 – Brian Lara; No. 10 – Jack Hobbs; No. 9 – Adam Gilchrist; No. 8 – Wasim Akram; No. 7 – Ricky Ponting; No. 6 – Muttiah Muralitharan

Read the detailed write-ups on all the players in this list here:

The greatest cricketers of all time