Vale Shane Warne

[Stokey]

His work commentating abroad for Sky Sports in the UK for England home test matches was so much better than his commentary in Australia. Sky UK have an excellent balance of expert analysis and good humour which never really ventured into laddish 'banter' which Australian broadcasting has become since the old guard of Channel 9's cricket coverage moved on. Warne was an amazing tactician and his cricketing brain to explain nuances of not just spin bowling but the rest of the game really shone for Sky Sports where he was working with Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Michael Holding, David Gower, David Lloyd etc.

Yeh that's where my very small glimpses have come from.

You always reach peak something.

Imagine the 12th Man trying to make Ian Healy funny. As dour as Ian Chappel was at least you could find something to take the piss out of.

 

[Pistol Night]

Yeh that's where my very small glimpses have come from.

You always reach peak something.

Imagine the 12th Man trying to make Ian Healy funny. As dour as Ian Chappel was at least you could find something to take the piss out of.

Yes, im here Rich. Yes, hes here too.

 

[FRUMPY]

the interview with leigh sales, i love his first line:

Interviewer: 'Nice to meet you'
Warnie: 'Nice to be met'

 

[PhatBoy]

Yeh that's where my very small glimpses have come from.

You always reach peak something.

Imagine the 12th Man trying to make Ian Healy funny. As dour as Ian Chappel was at least you could find something to take the piss out of.

He tried in the final dig - Heals is in the background saying ‘little bill, little bill’ when they’re egging Bill on to pull his **** out.

‘There you go, everyone have a look at it.’

 

[Bareth Garry]

Yeh that's where my very small glimpses have come from.

You always reach peak something.

Imagine the 12th Man trying to make Ian Healy funny. As dour as Ian Chappel was at least you could find something to take the piss out of.

Pretty sure that's why the 12th Man called it a day. If you want to make a caricature of people you need the actual people to give some obvious traits or material to work with.

Anyway Geoff Boycott paid tribute to Warne calling him the third best player of all time. Only Bradman and Sobers above him. Coming from Boycott who is so hard to impress and so eager to make criticism (plus who bangs on all the time about how things were better back in the old days of uncovered pitches and no helmets) getting that praise is as good as gold.

 

[Pistol Night]

He tried in the final dig - Heals is in the background saying ‘little bill, little bill’ when they’re egging Bill on to pull his **** out.

‘There you go, everyone have a look at it.’

Whats wrong Bill? Puma pants. Well go and wash them out please.

 

[PhatBoy]

Pretty sure that's why the 12th Man called it a day. If you want to make a caricature of people you need the actual people to give some obvious traits or material to work with.

Anyway Geoff Boycott paid tribute to Warne calling him the third best player of all time. Only Bradman and Sobers above him. Coming from Boycott who is so hard to impress and so eager to make criticism (plus who bangs on all the time about how things were better back in the old days of uncovered pitches and no helmets) getting that praise is as good as gold.

He’s certainly up there. I think he’s Australia’s best ever bowler though I never saw Lillee.

Best cricketer is a hard call to make.

Bradman is obviously number one, I have Sobers at two because of his versatility and aggression, otherwise there’s not much separating he and Kallis. That’s probably my top three.

The best three bowlers I’ve seen are Warne, Marshall and Steyn though I didn’t see much of Maco.

Purely because there is absolutely no hole in his record and yes I did love the guy but I can say without lying that my bias doesn’t impact this, I think Dale Steyn has an argument as the greatest bowler of all time because there is no glaring hole in his record - a couple of places where he averaged 31 and he did that despite having an ultra attacking approach - hence is super human strike rate - but he also didn’t bowl a style that is as difficult to master as Warne did so that elevates Warne a bit too. Essentially there’s not a lot between any of those three and any captain would be pretty happy to have them to choose from

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Even though I wrote RIP S.K. Warne in my post in here, my immediate thought when I heard about the renaming of the stand, its gotta be the Shane Warne stand, or even the Warnie stand, before they go with S.K.

Dennis Lillee was known as DK by his cricket mates and public, but it was just Shane or Warnie. Rob Marsh regularly referred to his great mate as DK.

Its only the odd story where the teller of another great Warnie story is looking for embellishment, that he calls him SK Warne. Fleming talking about that dropped hat trick catch, springs to mind.

Great to hear Crash Craddock on Whateley this morning say they have to lobby the government to get it called the Shane Warne stand. Using initials is from old bygone era. Pretty sure Warnie would go with the less formal, Shane.

Whateley said he'd get behind it and asked who do they lobby to make sure it happens?

 

[Plugger35]

His work commentating abroad for Sky Sports in the UK for England home test matches was so much better than his commentary in Australia. Sky UK have an excellent balance of expert analysis and good humour which never really ventured into laddish 'banter' which Australian broadcasting has become since the old guard of Channel 9's cricket coverage moved on. Warne was an amazing tactician and his cricketing brain to explain nuances of not just spin bowling but the rest of the game really shone for Sky Sports where he was working with Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Michael Holding, David Gower, David Lloyd etc.

Most commentators are better on the UK Sky coverage and Warne was no exception, he was given too much leeway on Ch9 and Fox where he became more self indulgent talking about stuff other than cricket. Sky kept him on a tighter rein talking more about the cricket and he was all the better for it.

 

[philreich]

Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but how's the comments by Sunil Gavaskar, saying that Murali was better than Warne, as were certain Indian spinners. What a flog!!!!!!

 

[Pistol Night]

Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but how's the comments by Sunil Gavaskar, saying that Murali was better than Warne, as were certain Indian spinners. What a flog!!!!!!

Probably a snippet from an interview where he would of meant no offence at all. As usual the media portray it as he’s bagged the **** out of him

 

[Xtreme]

Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but how's the comments by Sunil Gavaskar, saying that Murali was better than Warne, as were certain Indian spinners. What a flog!!!!!!

Well Murali does have more wickets taken....

 

[philreich]

Well Murali does have more wickets taken....

Murali himself admits that he was younger than Warne when he started, and played for a few years after Warne retired.

 

[Xtreme]

Murali himself admits that he was younger than Warne when he started, and played for a few years after Warne retired.

Even so Warne may have been the more majestibowler. Statistically speaking, Murali had more wickets and thus is number 1.

 

[reubski23]

Lol - the ball to James Brayshaw hahahaahaha

 

[Angry Red Bull]

He’s certainly up there. I think he’s Australia’s best ever bowler though I never saw Lillee.

Best cricketer is a hard call to make.

Bradman is obviously number one, I have Sobers at two because of his versatility and aggression, otherwise there’s not much separating he and Kallis. That’s probably my top three.

The best three bowlers I’ve seen are Warne, Marshall and Steyn though I didn’t see much of Maco.

Purely because there is absolutely no hole in his record and yes I did love the guy but I can say without lying that my bias doesn’t impact this, I think Dale Steyn has an argument as the greatest bowler of all time because there is no glaring hole in his record - a couple of places where he averaged 31 and he did that despite having an ultra attacking approach - hence is super human strike rate - but he also didn’t bowl a style that is as difficult to master as Warne did so that elevates Warne a bit too. Essentially there’s not a lot between any of those three and any captain would be pretty happy to have them to choose from

The only weakness is he was less lethal in India. His style was to get huge bounce and turn. The Indian wickets were more conducive to keeping low. That's why someone like M Clarke once got a swag using orthodox left arm and warnes balls rather than probing would just sit up to be hit.

Imo it was how poor the pitches were than Warne. In every other country with quality pitches he excelled.

 

[kickazz]

The only weakness is he was less lethal in India. His style was to get huge bounce and turn. The Indian wickets were more conducive to keeping low. That's why someone like M Clarke once got a swag using orthodox left arm and warnes balls rather than probing would just sit up to be hit.

Imo it was how poor the pitches were than Warne. In every other country with quality pitches he excelled.

Yeah exactly. Dozens of spinners have good records in India - Warne's style meant he had a record around the world the envy of all spinners. I guess if he adjusted his game to be better in India he would have elevated his stature even further.

 

[kickazz]

What game would this be, where was it and wtf is up with that pitch?

 

[reubski23]

The only weakness is he was less lethal in India. His style was to get huge bounce and turn. The Indian wickets were more conducive to keeping low. That's why someone like M Clarke once got a swag using orthodox left arm and warnes balls rather than probing would just sit up to be hit.

Imo it was how poor the pitches were than Warne. In every other country with quality pitches he excelled.

Not making excuses but his 1998 tour his shoulder was basically on a string and 2001 he was just coming off finger surgery.

In 2004 it was probably the first time he was fully fit in India and averaged around 30 with the ball - and showed the maturity of late era Warney the team knew that McGrath and Gillespie probably more so Gillespie were the keys to that series from a bowling perspective and he bowled to that the whole series it was pretty fantastic.

 

[Angry Red Bull]

Yeah exactly. Dozens of spinners have good records in India - Warne's style meant he had a record around the world the envy of all spinners. I guess if he adjusted his game to be better in India he would have elevated his stature even further.

He could have done fast low trajectory top spin like Kumble but that wasn't attacking enough for Warne. Alternatively he could have overused the flipper or slider but once again Warne viewed them as variety balls only.

 

[Thrawn]

I imagined - a few pages up - that his strange dieting habits may have played a part. And I see now that his manager is on the same wavelength saying Warnie had just been on a two-week diet of only drinking herbal tea.

A lack of potassium can greatly increase risk of heart attack, so you're definitely not wrong there. If he went on an all-fluid diet and drinking stuff like that, those chest pains he had prior to leaving to Thailand is no coincidence.

 

[Cole Dammett]

Dizzy Gillespie on the radio talking about Warnie this morning:

Warnie was always the last bloke off the field and into the dressing room, except for one day playing at the Gabba, he raced off the field and was first in there and we were all like what's going on here?

Turns out he'd got word of some blokes from the Brisbane lions coming to have a drink with them after play and he wanted to impress them. Warnie hated beer though. He used to drink Midori and lemonades.

But we walked into the change rooms, and Warnie is there propped up at his locker with his clothes off down to his jocks, an ice pack on his leg, a durry, and a beer. And we're like righto then this is odd but whatever. Anyway we're all in there with the footy boys and that, having a beer etc and tubby Taylor comes in to film a piece for channel 9 and is like Warnie what are you doing, you don't like beer. And he says 'nah every bowling day I always have a beer' which was patently not true but he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of the footy lads.

So every day for the next few months after we'd been in the field, we'd always make sure there was an open can of beer sitting on his bench in front of his locker and he knew he had no choice but to drink it, but didn't really get why it was always there. Then one day he cracked the shits saying can whoever is putting a beer there stop it, don't do it again I don't drink beer! Then the entire locker room cracked up, coaches and all and he realised why we were doing it and we all had a had a good laugh about 'bowling days'

 

[Ray Nolan]

Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but how's the comments by Sunil Gavaskar, saying that Murali was better than Warne, as were certain Indian spinners. What a flog!!!!!!

There's an argument for Muralitharan, but Gavaskar is kidding himself if he thinks any Indian spinner is in the conversation, no matter how many great spinners they've had. There's Warne and Muralitharan who folk can argue over and then a gap to the rest.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

What game would this be, where was it and wtf is up with that pitch?

With XXXX signs up on the score board looks like somewhere up in Queensland may be Cairns as its a Super 8's game in winter of 1996. story below is from 2016.

Home - Triple M

Listen live on LiSTNR. Download and stream for free.

www.triplem.com.au

The legends at cricket.com.au have unearthed some golden footage of Shane Warne bowling seam up medium pacers while wearing a floppy hat.

The video comes from the long forgotten Super 8s format, played over winter in 1996.

Warnie - playing for Victoria against South Australia - had recently had shoulder surgery and couldn’t rip his usual leggies, so resorted to bowling deceptively nippy seam up mediums.

He even manages to snag a couple of wickets, trapping future Australian coach Tim Nielsen plum LBW before getting one to zip through the defence of a young James Brayshaw.

Warnie ended with figures of 2/5 off his two overs although he couldn't get the Vics over the line, mainly due to JB's swashbuckling 53 off 28 balls that included seven 4s and a 6.

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

I feel one of the saddest things about Warne's passing, is that there were so many lunch time master classes he had to give, so many more tips to boys and girls who wanted to bowl leggies, so many more talks to young men a women who want to get better, place better fields and be confident, so much more talks to captains about how to use spinners and how to play attacking, entertaining cricket.

He still had so much to give to the game, and he would have loved those chats, those master classes and the helping tips.

I am confident of seeing another Bradman, but I know I will never see another Warne.