Shane Warne obituary: Larger than life, the king of leg spin, and England’s scourge across multiple Ashes series | Cricket News

Shane Warne, one of the finest cricket players in history, has died at the age of 52

Shane Warne was a larger-than-life character and a masterful leg-spin bowler, qualities that helped him transcend cricket.

A regular scourge of England during multiple Ashes campaigns, including in his final international series in 2006/07 when he picked up 23 wickets in a 5-0 sweep for Australia, Warne amassed 708 Test scalps in total across 145 matches in the longest form.

That placed him second in terms of statistics – behind only the 800 accrued by fellow spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, of Sri Lanka – but he was arguably unrivalled when it came to pure bowling skill, especially in the spin department.

Shane Keith Warne, born on September 13, 1969 in the Melbourne Suburb of Upper Ferntree Gully, announced himself properly on the international stage in December 1992.

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England Test captain Joe Root has paid tribute to Shane Warne describing him as an idol of his as he was growing up.

In just his fifth Test, he picked up seven second-innings wickets to bowl Australia to victory over West Indies on his home ground in Melbourne, one of 37 Test five-wicket hauls he would go on to collect during a storied career.

If people did not know about Warne then, they certainly did the following summer when he delivered the ‘Ball of the Century’ to England’s Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in June 1993.

With his first delivery in Ashes cricket, the peroxide-haired Warne pitched the ball outside Gatting’s leg stump before getting it to spin back prodigiously and hit the top of the right-hander’s off stump.

Gatting stood there befuddled – not the last time a batter would have felt like that having been dismissed by Warne and his brilliance – and a bowling star was born. Warne ended the series with a leading 34 wickets across the six Tests as Australia retained the Ashes by dint of a 4-1 victory.

That 1993 success for the Aussies was the third of eight Ashes series they won in a row, with Warne also playing pivotal roles in 1994-95 – when he bagged an MCG hat-trick – 1997, 2001 and 2002-03. His impact was limited in the 1998-99 series due to a shoulder injury.

Overall against England in Test cricket, his record reads 195 wickets in 36 Tests at an average of 23.25. No bowler in Test history has come close to taking as many Ashes wickets.

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From the 2015 documentary, ‘Shane Warne: Living The Dream’, Warne surprisingly revealed he rose through the ranks as a batsman before developing into a bowler.

Even in his sole Ashes series defeat, in 2005, Warne was outstanding. No bowler on either side came close to his 40 wickets – at an average below 20 – as he tried his best to preserve Australia’s long-held grip on the urn.

His efforts came in vain – but not 18 months later as he bowed out from international cricket an Ashes winner yet again, bringing a glittering, 15-year-long Australia career to an end.

That career included winning the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England, when he bagged a tournament-leading 20 wickets, including four-wicket hauls in the semi-final victory over South Africa at Edgbaston and the defeat of Pakistan in the final at Lord’s.

Warne – who finished his career with 1,001 international wickets in total, having picked up 293 in 194 one-day internationals – was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the 20th Century, alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir Viv Richards,

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Australia captain Pat Cummins says Shane Warne’s records will live on forever as he paid tribute to one of his idols.

Warne revolutionised spin bowing after the pace-dominated era of the 1970s and 1980s, bamboozling batters with spin, drift, flight and control, with his fertile brain perhaps his greatest weapon.

That love and knowledge of the game became even more apparent when he moved into the world of punditry, both at home and around the world, including with Sky Sports where he was an instrumental member of the team alongside the likes of Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain.

Always willing to pass on his knowledge and tips on the nuances of spin bowling, while commenting, analysing and during must-watch Sky Sports Masterclasses, Warne’s passion for cricket always shone through. Despite outside interests, he remained entrenched in the game.

He was a mentor for IPL side Rajasthan Royals, the side he captained to the title in 2008, and was head coach at London Spirit for the inaugural edition of the Hundred in 2021.

The Hundred did not go well for Warne’s side last season – he tested positive for Covid-19 and his team won just one of their eight matches – but he told Sky Sports recently that he was excited about the campaign ahead and trying to change their fortunes.

Rebounding from setbacks was something Warne was not alien to.

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The Telegraph’s Cricket Correspondent Nick Hoult pays tribute to Shane Warne and says he’ll be remembered for inspiring so many kids to want to be just like him.

That seven-for against West Indies back in 1992 came after an inauspicious start to his Test career, while he was handed a one-year suspension from cricket between February 2003 and February 2004 after testing positive for a banned substance on the eve of the 2003 World Cup.

In his first Test series back, Warne picked up successive 10-wicket hauls in Sri Lanka, continuing a nip-and-tuck rivalry with Muralitharan to see who would finish their career as the most prolific bowler in Test history.

Muralitharan won that battle but Warne was about more than numbers. His 700th Test wicket, bowling Sir Andrew Strauss with a remarkable spinning delivery at his beloved MCG in 2006, is a moment, like the Ball of the Century 13 years earlier, that will never be forgotten.

He was the ultimate competitor, the ultimate cricketer, and it will forever be a surprise that his only experience captaining his country was across 11 one-day internationals in 1998 and 1999, of which he won 10.

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Shane Warne took forty wickets in the thrilling 2005 Ashes series, watch them all here.

He captained Hampshire domestically, leading them to the one-day Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy in 2005, and a stand was named after him at The Ageas Bowl in 2012.

Warne was also a more than handy lower-order batter and holds the record for the most Test runs (3,154) without a century. His highest score was 99, against New Zealand at Perth in 2001, when he was dismissed off a Daniel Vettori no-ball that was not called. It was one of the rare times Warne fell short in anything he did.

There was off-field controversy – he and Mark Waugh were fined for accepting money from a bookmaker, while ahead of the 1999 World Cup he was fined for criticising then Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga in a newspaper article.

But, on the field, there have been few cricketers to light up the game like Warne. Genius can be an overused word in sport. Not in this case.

Warne is survived by his children – Brooke, Summer and Jackson.