IPL: Rajasthan Royals carry the Shane Warne spirit to DY Patil stadium

RR returned for the Mumbai Indians game on Saturday at the Navi Mumbai venue that had delivered the finest moment of the team's history

It was an emotional return for Rajasthan Royals to the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday, the scene of the best moment in their history. Their only IPL title, in the inaugural 2008 edition, came at this venue. In that final, their charismatic skipper Shane Warne had led a side of no-hoppers to the title, beating MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings.

BCCI paid tribute to Shane Warne on the opening day of IPL 2022

The Royals legend died on March 4 aged 52. Though none of those who played that game are in the current team, connect with Warne is established the moment a player wears the Royals jersey and cap. He is officially, “The First Royal. Forever.”

It’s only natural that whatever the team does this season, Warne will be a part of it. On Tuesday, on the eve of his memorial at the MCG, Royals tweeted a Warne poster headlined “Forever the first Royal!” They captioned it, “With us, wherever we go!” Another RR tweet says: “Shane Warne & Rajasthan – a story for the ages.”

As a tribute to their most inspirational figure, the franchise made a video on how Warne created RR’s Cinderella story. At the start of this IPL season, the squad watched the video together in which CEO Jake Lushmccrum says, “It’s tough enough he is not there with us but I think this season let’s celebrate his life and make him proud. The King, The Magician, The Showman.”

Summing up the key to Warne’s leadership, Lushmccrum appealed to the team to embrace their first captain’s way. “What Warney was able to do in that winning season was to get everyone playing for the badge. He had that personality, the motivation, the energy to bring that team together playing for one goal. That was one of the major reasons they were successful that season.”

There are only three staff members from Warne’s set-up in 2008 who are still with the side: John Gloster the physio, director-performance Zubin Bharucha and manager Romi Bhinder.

Bharucha described the atmosphere in the team when the video was played as “highly emotional”. He says: “It’s been such a journey, (which has come to) rather abrupt end.”

In the video, the RR story starts with Warne saying in an interview: “The key to IPL that I found out was that the first thing you have to do is win the players’ hearts.

“We had (players)--has-beens like myself we had young kids--17-18 years of age who hadn’t played first-class cricket. No one gave us the chance.”

His image as a fun-loving, party bloke didn’t always convey the right picture, says Bharucha. “People often forget how much disciplined he was when he came to cricket; he was never late for the bus, for practice. He may have partied all night but when the first ball is bowled, he is there.”

The cricket museum set up at Royals’ cricket academy at Talegaon, about two hours’ drive from Nagpur, has exhibited Warne’s every record. “We have all his record, every wicket he has taken. If you walk up the steps of the academy all the way to the third floor, all his dismissals are put up. You can keep reading… caught xx b Warne, each of his 708 Test dismissals. When we told him we are doing this, he got his office to send us the list.”

“We are planning to build a memorial for him there.”

Bharucha says: “We've a lot of things going on inside our bubble dedicated to Warne. There are posters of his famous quotes dedicated to him. Just remembering what he did for RR and the team culture he brought from day one, what his cricket values were, what he wanted the team to do.

“We have it in our value sheets that we provide at the start of the tournament to every new player that comes into Royals. We have since then added to it based on Rahul Dravid, Shane Watson, Sanju Samson, what they (values) brought to the side. But the main thoughts, ideas were all from Warne in his three years here.”