Shane Warne’s charm with ball in hand captured India’s imagination
Two years to the day since losing Shane Warne, his loss continues to be felt around the cricketing world – including India, where his mesmerising charm with ball in hand captured the imagination.
“Threads,” he’d yell out to me before flashing a big thumbs-up. Other times he’d just tilt his head in acknowledgment with a little raise of the eyebrow. And if the late great Shane Warne hadn’t been amused by my colourful garb for the day in the media centre yet, his former roommate Merv Hughes would point it out to him, along with his own little fashion rating.
Warne wouldn’t say much, except maybe joking about how you’d never catch him in anything from my wardrobe. It’s likely that he wasn’t joking. This is not to say that he and I were close or that we interacted much. And unfortunately, as it would turn out, it was only during what would be his last couple of Test summers that I developed any kind of rapport with him. That and the very occasional chat about declarations, which was a topic he always was keen on engaging with.
It didn’t matter whether he spoke to you or not, though. You always heard Shane Warne. You always felt his presence. You always were consumed by his aura. He wasn’t simply larger than life. He was in many ways the life of the broadcast area in every media box you went to around the country. Without often having to even do anything of note.
It was rather strange, and quite sad, to not have that around during this recent home Test summer. To not have Shane Warne or his glow floating around and putting smiles on a lot of faces.
All my previous experiences with him before moving to Australia were of course during his time in the IPL, when he captained and starred for the Rajasthan Royals. His performances on the field were, like always, captivating as ever. Starting with how he led his franchise to glory in the first season of the tournament that would go on to change the face of world cricket. But what stood out were the relationships he built with the young local players, especially the relatively unheralded ones, in his team.
Like I would eventually become “Threads”, Warnie loved tagging them with his own monikers. The most famous of those would be the “Rockstar” title he attached to a very young Ravindra Jadeja, who now sits as the foremost all-rounder in the sport. Warne saw the potential before anyone else did – to nobody’s surprise.
My favourites, though, were when he’d bring one of his young players along for what would be a captain’s press conference, and then make it all about them.
“Here, meet Elvis. Forget me, mate. Focus on this kid,” he once declared in a conference, much to the media’s astonishment. The “Elvis” in question was a cricketer in his mid-20s called Paras Dogra, who’d just started making a mark in Indian domestic cricket. It didn’t even matter whether Dogra knew of Elvis or listened to his music. That wasn’t the only time, either.
The most publicised story of this kind, though, was around a teenaged left-arm fast bowler from the absolute back of beyond called Kamran Khan, who Warne got an IPL contract for after noticing a clip of him bowling online. He took Kamran under his wing and heralded him as the next big thing of Indian cricket. Before long “Hurricane”, the nickname he gave the kid, had become one of the stories of the IPL. The youngster’s career didn’t last too long, sadly. When his bowling action was deemed to be doubtful, it was Warne who flew Kamran to Australia to get it sorted.
There is even a lovely story (and a picture on the internet) about how the one-time farmer from a village in northern India was introduced by Warne to his then partner, Elizabeth Hurley, as the “Hurricane”. Kamran would eventually quit cricket and go back to the farm. When asked about Warne’s contribution to his life, Kamran would say, “For me there is God and then there’s Shane Warne.”
Kamran wasn’t the only Indian to have a reverential view to that level of the greatest leg-spinner to have played the game. The Shane Warne aura was felt very differently in India. Unlike in Australia, him being a larrikin didn’t mean much to us. The off-field charm and the controversies were not relatable enough. Instead, it was the mesmerising charm he presented with ball in hand that captured our imagination. If anything, it was the same all around the subcontinent, especially in Galle, where we were two years ago, merely months after his death.
In the ’90s and the early 2000s in India, there was only one superhero in India. And you couldn’t speak of Sachin Tendulkar without immediately referring to his arch nemesis, Shane Warne. He wasn’t the dastardly villain, though. That honour back in that period was bestowed upon Ricky Ponting, who’s since won over India like nobody back then could have imagined.
Warne was a villain India cheered for. With the likes of Glenn McGrath and Ponting, you knew what to expect, but with Warne you always wondered about what diabolical plan he’d brought this time to bring our hero down. And we also knew that, the greater the challenge he posed to Sachin, the greater our hero’s performance would be.
Every champion needs a counterpart, after all, who elevates him further. Sachin Tendulkar would still have been an icon without Shane Warne but the fact he overcame Warne more often than not made him the ultimate legend.
Warne the TV commentator won India over as much as Warne the bowler did. While he might have had his critics back home, the pedestal he was put on in India meant we hung on to his every word. “Arey! (But!) This is Shane Warne and whatever he says has to be gospel,” was the overriding feeling.
It felt like he treated India with greater respect than many other foreign Hall of Fame cricketers. He made the effort to understand us, our culture and our cricket, even if as a player he might have chosen baked beans over our curries. More than anything, he showed a genuine interest in Indian cricket and what makes it tick.
It’s safe to say that if Shane Warne was Indian, they would have made many movies about him already. His life was a few Bollywood scripts rolled into one, anyway. It’s still a shock that it’s been two years on Monday since he left us. But it’s not only in Australia that his aura will remain etched forever. It’ll be the same in India, too. For, he not only influenced many lives there, he changed them for good.
More Coverage
Aussies into semis despite second washout against Afghanistan
Australia is through to the Champions Trophy semi finals despite rain forcing play to be abandoned during their chase of Afghanistan’s target of 274 at Lahore.
Billion dollar league: Private ownership on the cards for BBL
Cricket Australia is investigating how private equity could enhance the Big Bash and return the league to its former status as the undisputed No.2 T20 league on earth.