The Shane Warne obituary: Cricket’s most effervescent showman

The cricketing world is in profound grief on this woeful Saturday and as much one we all wished it was just a dreadful dream, it isn’t. Shane Keith Warne, fondly recognized and revered as “Warnie” by friends, teammates, and fans, is no longer among us. A slap of reality, as if we really needed one with all that’s happening in the world.

More than what he did, how he did and the things he accomplished, it is how he made people feel that perpetrated such an enormous reaction yesterday. Shane Warne was cricket’s ultimate showman, he demanded limelight and was often the one who captured all eyes, let it be on the ground or outside.

The enormity of a great writer isn’t measured by the number of words, it’s not just their melodious voice that makes a musician iconic, and those 1,001 wickets at the international level (1,862 in professional cricket) is at best an icing. The magic was elsewhere, in his wrists.

Those wild, soaring leg-breaks encapsulated a generation of cricket audience so much, every time he rolled his arm over, the crowd swiftly leaned forward or got on their feet. He bowled over 50,000 deliveries in international cricket and tried to make each one of them an event within itself.

Fear of consequence stops us from doing plenty of things, we also imagine the utopian joy of doing something brilliant. We’d never know what went in his head, but clearly, he loved living in the moment by soaking in the adulation, and from there he would get the energy to stride in the next delivery. Then came those pirouettes with his tongue smacking his upper lip.

A lot of times Shane Warne didn’t even get a wicket, but it garnered cheers and smiles

His control was exceptional and all those eye-popping wickets are indeed great memories, but the gargantuan turn he achieved many a million times was a source of joy in itself. It was as shocking as it was entertaining. From over the wicket, he would pitch it along the leg-stump line and spin it so much, the batter would be found stretching every muscle just to reach it. A lot of times he didn’t even get a wicket, but it garnered cheers and smiles.

That was Shane Warne, a presence that quite often shadowed the cricket match he was supposed to be just a part of. The bigger the moment, the bigger he got.

The only cricketer to have picked up a player of the match award in both semi-final and final of a World Cup (1999), the only cricketer to pick up a hat-trick in a Boxing Day Test, the first man on the planet to reach 700 wickets (and he did so in some style, at the MCG), the first name to be drafted in the history of IPL auctions, and the captained Rajasthan Royals to the inaugural title in 2008 – If only we could keep a count of the facts and stats exclusive to the man.

But above all, his greatest contribution to the game was how much he loved it and by doing so, he made so many of us watching him envy his artistry. Wrist spin became cool and kids wanted to turn it the way he did, going as far as imitating every little nuance of his action.

From Alfred Shaw (categorized as right-arm slow by ESPN Cricinfo), the man who bowled the first-ever ball in Test cricket back in 1877, to Lasith Embuldeniya and Nathan Lyon who are in action today, so many spinners came and went in these 145 years, but how many actually mastered the art? A handful, especially the art of leg-spin.

Richie Benaud and Abdul Qadir were the early pioneers and two immortals in their own respects. To turn the ball with your wrist requires an outrageous amount of control, a little lapse in concentration and you’d deliver a dreadful ball. It was a picture so difficult to paint, or it seemed so, that you saw very few people take it up seriously.

But when the Victorian came into the fray, he mesmerized an entire generation to not just take up spin seriously, also turning it into a box-office affair. So many established batters who played actively post 2010 started their careers as leg-spinners – Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis, Liam Livingstone, Marnus Labuschagne to name a few.

While a couple of them are actively pursuing that interest to this date, a few others realized it was no walk in the park. All of those individuals at some point in their career credited Warne as their inspiration to do so.

Shane Warne’s passing resulted in an outpour of grief, which is a direct reflection of his stature. The news, nearly a day after it broke, is yet to sink in the hearts and will take a lot longer.

It is unfortunate that we don’t often look back and celebrate the life and times of individuals who are around us, and when we do it after their departure, it weighs heavy on the heart. The tributes that have flown in since the news broke out show us what he meant to his friends, and to those he never met but loved his as one of their own.

The many times he left us bewildered and shocked, we derived joy, but not this time. Cricket’s most enigmatic showman fades away, but only in flesh and blood. His aura will continue to live on in the fingers and wrists of the established and aspiring spinners because you can neither take cricket out of Warne nor Warne out of cricket.

Farewell to a legend!

-Anuraag Peesara