Sudden death of Shane Warne, the leg spin artist

With 1001 international wickets, including 708 in Tests, Shane Warne was singularly responsible for reviving the art of leg-spin in the 1990s.

Shane Keith Warne, the greatest ever leg-spinner, has died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52.

Shane Warne acknowledges the crowd as he walks off after taking his 700th Test wicket. (Action Images)

With 1001 international wickets, including 708 in Tests, Warne was singularly responsible for reviving the art of leg-spin in the 1990s. One of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century, Warne was a member of Australia’s 1999 World Cup winning side --- he was adjudged Man of the Match in the semi-final and final --- and was also part of the squad that twice won a record 16 Tests in a row, between 1999 and 2001 and 2005 to 2008.

In 2005, Warne took 96 wickets, still the highest for any calendar year. Warne had also forged a formidable combination with former fast bowler Glenn McGrath, accounting for 1001 wickets in 104 Tests together, making them the most prolific bowling pair in the history of the game. The fact that Australia were unbeaten in 119 out of the 145 Tests Warne had played is proof of how effective he was, often featuring as the sole spinner in the side.

Warne made his debut as a 22 year-old with blonde-frosted tips against India in Sydney in 1991-92, taking the solitary wicket of double centurion Ravi Shastri while conceding 150 runs in 45 overs. It was only during the 1993 Ashes tour—June 4 to be precise—that Warne finally showed his mettle, bamboozling Mike Gatting. It was a regulation leg break that was drifting and dipping to pitch outside leg, prompting Gatting to stretch out his left pad only to watch it turn square and scythe across him to clip the top of off stump. Gatting stared back at the pitch in disbelief, not even realising initially that he had been clean bowled. Leg spin became sexy with that single delivery, later dubbed the ‘Ball of the Century’.

Warne always reserved his best against England, aggregating 195 wickets in just 36 Tests that oversaw a period where Australia kept the urn for 12 years. And when England finally won it back in 2005, Warne was Australia’s first and last line of resistance as he took a career-best haul of 40 wickets. Best ball of that Ashes tour? A ripping leg-break wide of off stump that teased Andrew Strauss into shuffling across the line, spitting off a puff of dust and cannoning into his stumps from almost an imaginary seventh stump.

Cricket got leg spinners like Abdul Qadir, Mushtaq Ahmed and Anil Kumble within two decades but few turned the ball as sharply as Warne. Not just turn, Warne’s mastery was in the control he could wield on the ball, old or new. In his hand, leg spin was the highest form of art. Armed with the flippers and the googlies and the sliders, Warne was his own competition.

For all the accolades in his career, Warne also met his match in Sachin Tendulkar who flayed him to all parts of the ground during the 1998 tour of India and then in Sharjah, a tournament Warne later said had given him nightmares. “Some people have said that my duel with Tendulkar in India in 1997-98 was the most compelling Test cricket they have ever seen, but there is no doubt he enjoyed the better of the exchanges,” Warne wrote in his autobiography ‘No Spin’.

Among his contemporary spinners, no one gave Warne closer competition than Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. Besmeared by allegations of chucking when Sri Lanka toured Australia, Muralitharan was always on Warne's coattails in the race to the wicket-takers’ summit. Warne took his 700th wicket at the MCG in 2006 and retired with 708 after the Ashes New Year’s Test in Sydney in 2007. In July the same year, Muralitharan became the second bowler after Warne to take 700 wickets before retiring with 800 in 2010.

Off the field, Warne’s life was a hazy maze of controversies and scandals. In 1995, Mark Waugh and Warne were fined for passing on match-related information to an Indian bookmaker during the 1994 tour of Sri Lanka. In 2003, on the cusp of the 50-over World Cup, Warne was banned for taking a prohibited diuretic. Warne also shared an embittered relationship with Steve Waugh. He often went on record saying how much he had felt let down after Steve had dropped him from the playing 11 in the fourth Test against West Indies in 1999, adding that the former Australia captain was "the most selfish player I ever played with, and was only worried about averaging 50".

Victorian by birth, Warne is a legend in the English county circuit, having played for Hampshire for eight seasons between 2000 and 2007. In 2012, Hampshire named a stand at Southampton’s Rose Bowl after him. Right after retirement, Warne linked up with Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals in 2008 to mentor and lead them to a stunning win in the inaugural season. He was associated with the franchise till 2020. Possibly the most gifted captain Australia never had, Warne leaves behind a distinguished legacy and three children—Jackson, Summer and Brooke.