By Casey O'Connor
I like sports fans and people across the world was devastated by the news of the death of Shane Warne.
The news delivered to me by my partner in Spin around midnight on Friday night. I was sound asleep when P woke me to deliver the tragic news and frankly, I thought she’d gone a little crazy because it has been a crazy time in the Spin household recently.
A quick look at my phone confirmed the news. Time stood still – it was a moment I will never forget as I tried to comprehend the words I was reading and hearing.
I had been gutted earlier in the day to hear Rod Marsh had passed away and had been trying to process that news. I always felt a special connection with Rod ‘Bacchus’ Marsh.
Marsh the brash young ‘wickey’ debuted for Australia at the Gabba in the first Test against the Poms during the 1970/71 series. During that game, on a very hot November afternoon a bloke who looked a bit like me in those days, may or may not have souvenired a stump during a break in play because of bad light.
Thanks to the late Lew Cooper ‘that stump’ holds pride of place in my lounge room. So, Bacchus took his first catch behind the stumps against the Poms (the first of four in the game) and I snatched my first and only stump. I always thought it has a nice symmetry.
However, as a ‘broken down leggie’, I was in awe of S K Warne from the moment I saw ‘that ball.’ You all know the one – the ball of the century that dismissed a still bemused Mike Gatting. The delivery he always said was a fluke and that he could never repeat.
Warne was nothing short of a sorcerer with a cricket ball making it do impossible things.
Shane Warne reinvented the dying art of leg spin bowling. He made every kid and every old kid want to turn the ball in the way he did. His stats and his records speak to his uncanny ability and gift.
However, there was so much more that he bought to the table. Like Rod Marsh decades before he bought a brashness to cricket. He made it cool to be a cricket follower or a cricketer. He was the likeable Aussie larrikin who never seemed to take himself too seriously in spite of his talent.
By his own admission had plenty of flaws and made mistakes but he owned them. He never denied them, never tries to explain them away and it was what endeared him to most mere mortals.
There were many layers to Warnie.
He was a student of the history of the game and acknowledged by his peers and cohort as having one of the sharpest brains ever seen in the game. The plaudits he received from Sir Donald Bradman placed him firmly in a league of his own.
I have had the very good fortune to spend many hours with Ian Healy and John Buchanan during a number of Wanderers tours. Not surprisingly Shane Warne often came up in conversation.
The pair were closer than most to Warne but their relationships with him vastly different.
While Buchanan the coach was in awe of Warne’s magic with the ball and his cricket brain their differences put them solar systems apart.
Healy, privy to the best seat in the house, behind the stumps for years as Warne weaved his magic counted him a mate .
Both spoke of life on tour with Warnie as vastly different experiences.
Buchanan driven to distraction and Heals recounting some of the antics that set Warnie apart from the rest.
Behind the façade there was someone very special.
In some way complex but in other ways a humble human being. A man more interested in the other person in the room than himself who loved to analyse people. A trait that helped him as he honed his craft.
A man who loved his children and family above all else. That love and his close friendships laid bare for the world to see in the past week. The outpouring of grief and support for the family he held so dearly coming from all corners of the world.
Shane Warne re-energised cricket at a time when it needed it. He made it cool and gave everyone a reason to watch. Whether you loved or hated him he made you pay attention.
For me it was pure joy to see him walk to his mark at the Gabba on day one of the first test at the Gabba always wearing those cricket boots with the tell-tale splash of red. A hush silencing the crowd in expectation of what was to come.
It is hard to fathom that when cricket returns to our screens next summer, we will not see Warnie doing a pitch report, analysing a field placement, or signing autographs and posing for selfies. Critiquing bowlers, batters and handing out constructive criticism to captains, ours and opposition or giving his time and tips to the next crop of young budding leggies.
While few of us knew him, we all felt we knew him. He was Warnie. Perhaps the greatest bowler and one of the best cricketers we will ever see.
He was a star, a superstar one that burned brighter than the rest – but above all else he was comfortable with who he was, simply Shane Keith Warne.
RIP Rod Marsh (1949- 4 March 2022) ; RIP Shane K Warne (1969 – 4 March 2022)
Casey
