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During the Packer series, ‘big boys played at night’, both on and off the field. Shane Warne was a post-Packer generation cricketer who carried forward the legacy of the Imrans, the Bothams and the Vivs.
If Imran Khan reportedly had Sita White and Goldie Hawn, and Ian Botham had Lindy Field, Warne allegedly had nine sexcapades. Three years ago, The Daily Mail reported that the Spin King, 49 at the time, allegedly had a “noisy four-way sex party with his lover and two escorts” at his Maida Vale home in London.
On the field, Warne was the ‘Wizard of Oz’, foxing the batsmen for fun, which Mike Gatting would attest. Off it, he was colourful enough to match some of the biggest football stars. Warne was actually cricket’s George Best and Diego Maradona rolled into one.
Grapevine has it that Best once bedded eight women in a day. He was the ‘fifth Beatle’. “If I had been born ugly, you would have never heard of Pele,” Best had famously said. Once, doctors told him never to touch alcohol again. His first port of call upon coming out of the medical consultation was a nearby pub.
Warne was Mr Hollywood, uninhibited enough to say: “I drank a bit, I smoked a bit and I bowled leg-spin.”
In 1974, Best made a controversial exit from Manchester United, then first-team manager Tommy Docherty dismissing the legendary footballer from the dressing-room for allegedly turning up drunk for an FA Cup game against Plymouth.
FILE PHOTO: Manchester United great George Best poses with a life-size version of a Royal Mail stamp featuring former United midfielder Duncan Edwards. Action Images via REUTERS/Brandon Malone
Maradona was thrown out of the 1994 World Cup after testing positive for using the banned drug ephedrine. Warne was expelled from the 2003 World Cup after failing a dope test.
Best and Maradona used their feet like a magic wand. Warne weaved his magic through his fingers and wrist. Like Maradona, he also broke down after being banned from playing in the World Cup. Like the Argentine master, he also maintained that he never took any steroids.
“Cricket Australia made the decision to send me home, so I have to address the team, which was really hard because as I said I’m anti-drugs. I don’t do them, never touched them,” he had said in an interview with Fox Sports, adding: “Apologising to them just on the eve of the World Cup was I felt so bad to unsettle their groove because we were all on the journey to try and win that World Cup. I broke down in front of the team. It was tough.”
Like Maradona, Warne also broke down after being banned from playing in the World Cup. Like the Argentine master, he also maintained that he never took any steroids. (Twitter/Napoli)
On Friday, greatness and showmanship died young. When the cricket world would fall for John Buchanan’s new-age coaching methods, with Australia on a golden run, Warne would comfortably call the former coach “verbal diarrhoea”.
“I disagree with John Buchanan all the time. I don’t think he has made one good point in a long time, actually. Everything that I have read that he says, he is living in pixieland. It just shows what us players had to put up with. We had to listen to his verbal diarrhoea all the time. He is just a goose and has no idea and lacks common sense, and you can put all that in there,” he told the Sydney Daily Telegraph.
That was 2007, when Warne would also assert that Australia’s golden period had nothing to do with coaching and had everything to do with a change-room replete with world-class players. He also predicted the team’s slump once those great players would hang up their boots. “Yes, Australia is the No.1 country in the world, but all this bull about our players going to other countries and playing, what a lot of crap. There’s going to be a time in the next two or three years when Australia is tested. Other countries will catch up and they will unearth someone, that’s just the cycle.” His words turned out to be prophetic.
A year later, Warne would lead Rajasthan Royals to the Indian Premier League title, prompting Ian Chappell to call him the best captain Australia never had. During Royals’ visit to Eden Gardens for a game against Kolkata Knight Riders, when this correspondent had asked him about Chappell’s observation, Warne had a few unkind words to say about Cricket Australia, while enjoying a smoke. He probably never forgave his country’s cricket hierarchy for the snub that had outlined seven key reasons to cut him from any leadership role. CA’s decision in 2000 came on the heels of Warne’s texting controversy with an English nurse and two major points highlighted by the administration were “catalogue of reckless conduct” and “history of incidents”.
Shane Warne, one of the greatest cricket players in history, has died. He was 52. AP/PTI
During his stint as Royals captain, Warne called a callow, 19-year-old Ravindra Jadeja the ‘rockstar’. That was down to the Indian allrounder’s cricketing potential, with his skipper offering an eye for talent. In reality, Warne was the real rockstar, with a Hollywood look and Jim Morrison’s charisma.
