Shane Warne

Australia|Bowler
Shane Warne
INTL CAREER: 1992 - 2007
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Full Name

Shane Keith Warne

Born

September 13, 1969, Ferntree Gully, Victoria

Died

March 04, 2022, Koh Samui, Thailand, (aged 52y 172d)

Nicknames

Warnie

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Legbreak Googly

Playing Role

Bowler

Height

1.83 m

Other

Commentator

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.

Warne's love of the game went beyond simple things like retirement and it was exemplified by how he was still in the thick of it all in 2008, leading a rag-tag bunch of players at Rajasthan Royals to the Indian Premier League title. There were even a few flash points left in him, notably when he faced-off against Marlon Samuels in the Big Bash League. Finally, and amid much fanfare, Warne left the field once again, but he didn't go very far. He couldn't. Not with that amazing mind of his, which he put to use as a commentator, often calling the plays before they even happened.

On March 4, 2022, when he was on holiday in Thailand, Warne died of a suspected heart attack. An icon who transcended boundaries, he received an outpouring of tributes from both the cricket world and the wider community in Australia and across the globe.
Christian Ryan and ESPNcricinfo staff

Shane Warne Career Stats

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Tests14527340705179957088/7112/12825.412.6557.4483710
ODIs1941911064275412935/335/3325.734.2536.31210
FC301-748303444913198/71-26.112.7656.7-6912
List A311-16419116424736/426/4224.614.2534.72030
T20s737115481863704/214/2126.617.2222.1100

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s4s6sCtSt
Tests1451991731549917.32547057.65012353371250
ODIs1941072910185513.05141372.04016013800
FC301404486919107*19.43--226--2640
List A3112004118795511.81--01--1260
T20s73321021034*9.5422892.1000157180
Shane Keith Warne

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Photos of Shane Warne

There was a tribute to former London Spirit coach Shane Warne
Meg Lanning and Shane Warne were among the Queen's Birthday Honours
The players and officials line up to applaud the late Shane Warne for 23 seconds at the end of the 23rd over
Rajasthan Royals pay tribute to the late Shane Warne
The Southern Stand at the MCG has been formally renamed the Shane Warne Stand
The Shane Warne stand is unveiled at the MCG during his state memorial