FEW modern sportsmen may have found as much inspiration in the face of adversity, as much light when surrounded by darkness, as has Shane Warne. The man with a seemingly inexhaustible capacity for surprise and self-renewal seems to have a compelling need to explore the edge of the abyss before taking wings to soar to stratospheric heights of performance.
In the event, only a few weeks after his wife — and the mother of his three children — left him following yet another tabloid revelation of his extra-marital affairs in England, the Australian leg spinner has scaled a peak — 600 Test wickets — on which no bowler has
ever set foot in the long history of cricket.
Warne's capacity to self-destruct is exceeded only by his genius to re-invent himself as a champion cricketer time and again — there is a sort of inexorability to the cycle. Deeply self-absorbed, driven by an almost superhuman will to succeed, absolutely — almost outrageously — filled with self-belief, the leg spinner from Melbourne has resurfaced a winner each time he's been written off.
Sheer longevity
The only bowler in Wisden's Top Five cricketers of the 20th century — the other four are Don Bradman, Jack Hobbs, Garfield Sobers and Vivian Richards — Warne, arguably the greatest spinner the game has ever seen, has surprised many with his sheer longevity as a top class performer.
Bowling with the back of your hand is one of the toughest things to do in cricket. Quite apart from exceptional skill, it requires tremendous concentration, mental toughness and a one-pointed drive. And the fact that Warne has been the best in his business for as long as he's been around in international cricket is something that certainly sets him apart as one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
But then, to the aesthete, the milestones crossed by Warne and the records he will leave behind may be less significant than the breathtaking beauty and dazzling lyricism of the Aussie leg-spinner's art. A lot of the romance concerning leg spin has to do with the fact that it is an unnatural business. And to do it as well as Warne has done for 13 long years in a roller-coaster career is something that is truly amazing — perhaps even mind-boggling, considering that the Aussie icon has done it under the constant glare of spotlight, while his public and private lives have been in continual harsh scrutiny and in the face of unrelenting criticism about his behaviour off the field, and sometimes even on it.
What is more, Warne has accomplished everything he has on his own terms, in a way despite himself, despite being a `bit of a lad'. Other sporting legends of the Warne era, men such as Sachin Tendulkar and Pete Sampras, to name only two, have had few flaws in their character and have always shown the discipline and the native intelligence needed to steer clear of trouble.
Affinity for scandals
On the other hand, the roly-poly 35-year old from Melbourne seems to have a demonstrable affinity for scandals. In an era when the emphasis in the sports media is slowly shifting from on-field drama to intense celebrity-gazing, for men like Warne the line between public life and private life has vanished. The life of an erring, all-too-human superstar becomes one big play , acted out in public and reviewed constantly in the media.
Athletic talent — even talent as special as that possessed by Warne — is a rather fragile thing. And in the case of Warne, a pure creature of nature, a creature of his own passions, to protect his precious talent from the onslaught of forces generated by his own celebrity in an era of media saturation in sport must have taken some doing.
Yet, there he is, atop Mount Warne, breathing in the rarefied air as if born to do it, and looking good to scale another big summit. As democratic as sport is at one level, at another it gloriously magnifies inequality. Just compare Shane Warne, flawed, sinning, warts and all with other squeaky-clean, disciplined, hard working spinners of his era...well, forget it, there is no comparison.
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