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Full name Shane Keith Warne
Born September 13, 1969, Ferntree Gully, Victoria
Current age 38 years 247 days
Major teams Australia,Hampshire,ICC World XI,Rajasthan Royals,Victoria
Nickname Warney
Playing role Bowler
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Legbreak googly
Height
1.83 m
Batting and fielding averages
Mat
Inns
NO
Runs
HS
Ave
BF
SR
100
50
4s
6s
Ct
St
Tests
145
199
17
3154
99
17.32
5470
57.65
0
12
353
37
125
0
ODIs
194
107
29
1018
55
13.05
1413
72.04
0
1
60
13
80
0
First-class
301
404
48
6919
107*
19.43
2
26
264
0
List A
311
200
41
1879
55
11.81
0
1
126
0
Twenty20
12
7
1
73
22*
12.16
63
115.87
0
0
7
3
6
0
Bowling averages
Mat
Inns
Balls
Runs
Wkts
BBI
BBM
Ave
Econ
SR
4w
5w
10
Tests
145
273
40705
17995
708
8/71
12/128
25.41
2.65
57.4
48
37
10
ODIs
194
191
10642
7541
293
5/33
5/33
25.73
4.25
36.3
12
1
0
First-class
301
74830
34449
1319
8/71
26.11
2.76
56.7
69
12
List A
311
16419
11642
473
6/42
6/42
24.61
4.25
34.7
20
3
0
Twenty20
12
12
246
314
15
3/19
3/19
20.93
7.65
16.4
0
0
0
Career statistics
Test debut
Australia v India at Sydney, Jan 2-6, 1992 scorecard
Last Test
Australia v England at Sydney, Jan 2-5, 2007 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut
New Zealand v Australia at Wellington, Mar 24, 1993 scorecard
Last ODI
Asia XI v ICC World XI at Melbourne, Jan 10, 2005 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class debut
1990/91
Last First-class
Yorkshire v Hampshire at Leeds, Sep 19-22, 2007 scorecard
List A debut
1991/92
Last List A
Hampshire v Gloucestershire at Southampton, Sep 9, 2007 scorecard
Twenty20 debut
Hampshire v Lancashire at Southampton, Jul 19, 2004 scorecard
Last Twenty20
Rajasthan Royals v Bangalore Royal Challengers at Jaipur, May 17, 2008 scorecard
Profile
At first there were nerves and chubbiness. Then came wild soaring legbreaks, followed by fame and flippers. For a long while there were women, then a bookmaker, then diet pills, then more women - and headlines, always headlines. Now he has come out the other end, his bluff and bluster and mischief and innocence somehow intact. The man who in 2000 was rated among the five greatest cricketers of the 20th century was, in 2006, bowling better than ever.
When Warne likened his life to a soap opera he was selling himself short. His story was part fairytale, part pantomime, part hospital drama, part adult's-only romp, part glittering awards ceremony. He took a Test hat-trick, won the Man-of-the-Match prize in a World Cup final and was the subject of seven books. He was the first cricketer to reach 700 Test wickets. He swatted more runs than any other Test player without making a hundred, and was probably the wiliest captain Australia never had. His ball that gazoodled Mike Gatting in 1993, bouncing outside leg stump and cuffing off, is unanimously esteemed the most famous in history. He revived legspin, thought to be extinct, and is now pre-eminent in a game so transformed that we sometimes wonder where the next champion fast bowlers will come from.
For all that, Warne's greatest feats are perhaps those of the last couple of years of his career. Returning in 2004 from a 12-month hiatus for swallowing forbidden diuretics, he swept aside 26 Sri Lankan batsmen in three Tests, and the following year scalped a world record 96 victims - a stunning 24 more than in his show-stopping 1993 - and still missed out on the Allan Border Medal. Forty of those were Englishmen in what sometimes appeared to be a lone stand in a thrilling Ashes series. At the end he was helped by his stockpile of straight balls: a zooter, slider, toppie and back-spinner, one that drifted in, one that sloped out, and another that didn't budge. Yet he seldom got his wrong'un right and rarely landed his flipper. More than ever he relied on his two oldest friends: excruciating accuracy and an exquisite legbreak, except that he controlled the degree of spin - and mixed it - at will. Like the great classical painters, he stumbled upon the art of simplicity. His bowling was never simpler, nor more effective, nor lovelier to look at.
Maybe, as with Posh Spice or Kylie Minogue, Warne is more famous than he is loved. Maybe we didn't fully appreciate his genius until he quit at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes series when he achieved his final goal, the reclaiming of the urn; maybe, like Bradman's, it will become ever more apparent with the passing of decades. One thing's for sure, though. Cricket was poorer for his going.
Christian Ryan January 2007
Notes
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1994
One-Day International Player of the Year - 2000
Selected as one of five Wisden cricketers of the century, 2000
Test Player of the Year - 2006
