RIP Warney
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Shane Warne died as he lived, leaving a hurricane of emotions and memories | Jonathan Liew
He achieved greatness but never pretended to be perfect, and perhaps we all loved him a little bit more because of that
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@majorrage Eh? No idea what you are talking about …
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A long read but well worth it for the anecdotes from three Kiwi cricketers.
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A bloody good read, but especially:
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It turned out it wasn’t just verbal tuition – which was always positive and encouraging – for Sodhi, either. The master, one year shy of the half century, was able to give an in-the-flesh demonstration.“One distinct memory I have was a net session, we were in there and [England international] Jos Buttler was the batter,” Sodhi says.
“No-one could get him out, all these young fellas were trying really hard and couldn’t do it. And then Warnie, who’s 49 at the time, rolls his shoulder around, gets a little bit warmed up, and three balls in, bowled a ball that pitched like seven stumps outside leg, Buttler’s run down, it’s turned past him and nailed off-stump.
“It was like, ‘Oh my god. This guy, he’s taking the piss’.”
...Source: 'He just made leg-spin really cool': Shane Warne's lasting impressions on NZ cricketers
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@broughie said in RIP Warney:
Shane Warne if in one of my gaps from NZ/ Aussie history due to being in the States. Never saw him bowl. From what I am reading a street smart person and probably I high IQ. Like most I think I would like to meet him. RIP.
Quite a skill - Warnie getting the MCG crowd to stop throwing things at the English outfielders:
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@donsteppa said in RIP Warney:
@broughie said in RIP Warney:
Shane Warne if in one of my gaps from NZ/ Aussie history due to being in the States. Never saw him bowl. From what I am reading a street smart person and probably I high IQ. Like most I think I would like to meet him. RIP.
Quite a skill - Warnie getting the MCG crowd to stop throwing things at the English outfielders:
He was their Prince. They would do anything for him
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Definitely sounds like one of the top guys you would want to have a beer with
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During the bushfires in Victoria in 2009 I watched the nightly news featuring a visit to the firefighters by that effete little man Rudd as Prime Minister. He stepped out of the Commonwealth limousine, stood and looked awkwardly towards the crews milling about, 30 or 40 yards away, collecting their tucker from the trestle tables.
They looked back at him with obvious disinterest. He then had to walk towards them, beaming and unwelcome.
The very next night the news showed a similar setting - a white sedan arrived on site, the front passenger door was opening before it stopped. Out bounded Shane Warne with a big smile and "G'day fellas", striding to them. The reaction was spontaneous - they came to him as one, laughing and enjoying the surprise, swamping him with their hospitality.
He did what he needed to do instinctively, with confidence and ease. He was a natural.
That is precisely what I see in the video you have displayed - "Quite a skill" you say. I reckon you would be fortunate to see that just once in a lifetime.
Big Merv could pull it off it; Mark Waugh too - he was good with the mob; and Greg Matthews, a charismatic and able fella, who they liked. None of them could do it with near the same aplomb as Shane.
It has been a sad week, I felt the same when Peter Brock died sixteen years ago. You come across many good men in a lifetime, some of them are truly exceptional.
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@kirwan said in RIP Warney:
@donsteppa did it work?
Source: ‘Only one bloke can stop them, bring out the king’: The night Warne tamed Bay 13
Alec Stewart can’t remember if it was the game someone peppered the field with a seven iron from a corporate box, but there was no mistaking the golf balls rolling to within 30 metres of the MCG pitch.
“Someone was using a golf club from one of the executive boxes,” Stewart told the Herald and The Age from London. “It definitely happened I promise you. I can’t remember if it was that match.”
The date was January 15, 1999 and it was one of those heaving nights at the MCG. Australia were playing England in a one-dayer and every stand was full to the brim. Batsmen were resorting to hand signals, such was the deafening noise.
With six overs left and Australia cruising to what would be a comfortable win, however, the natives got restless. Particularly in the infamous Bay 13.
“Fifty-over games in Melbourne were very, very special. I don’t know how many people were there that night,” Stewart, who was England’s captain, said.
“It always created great atmosphere and yep, at times the beer could do the talking as the game goes on. But it was pretty much always good banter but that one, it went too far.
“There was a few stubbies being thrown and then some golf balls, we thought this isn’t good. It was dangerous for our man down on the boundary’s edge.”
When England’s third man Mark Ealham was clipped on the leg by a VB bottle, the umpires pulled up play and talked with Stewart.
Stewart recalled the umpires discussing taking the players off the field to ensure their safety. Fans were ignoring the police.
“But the last thing you want is a game suspended or abandoned because of crowd behaviour,” Stewart said.
“So I thought if there is one bloke who can stop them - the police can’t - bring out the king. He was the king of the MCG, and I wouldn’t call it wisdom because I am involved, but I just thought ‘lets get Warnie out here’.”
With his wicketkeeper’s gloves on, Stewart faced the Australian dressing room and rolled the arm over, mimicking Warne’s leg-spin bowling action. Warne, who was captaining Australia that night, was “eating my Maccas” when Stewart’s call was spotted.
“I walk out and there’s an eruption of the crowd. They all start chanting my name. I can hardly hear Alec Stewart. He said, ‘Mate, the game’s going to stop unless you can get Bay 13 to calm down’,” Warne told FoxSports in January.
“I said, ‘You can’t be serious, they’re going to eat me alive down there and start hurling things at me.’ He said, ‘Well, you’re the king of the MCG. You’ve got to go and do it.’”
Warne was anxious because Australia had lost the Boxing Day Test a few weeks earlier, and courtesy of a 139-run partnership between Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting, the Mexican waves were more interesting than the contest.
“I can’t remember this happening before, at the MCG,” Nine commentator Bill Lawry said.
Warne grabbed Waugh’s helmet and put it on, lightening the mood, and by the time he arrived at Bay 13, the whole stand was hailing Warne with their arms. His message of ‘don’t throw things’ was dutifully received and Warne trotted back to the dressing sheds. The missiles stopped and the game re-started.
It was a remarkable moment that showed Warne’s power of personality and influence. Called upon by the old enemy to help, Warne single-handedly tamed the masses. It wasn’t parting a sea, but it wasn’t far off.
He was the man of the people and everyone worshipped him really
Alec Stewart on Shane WarneBay 13 no longer exists but fittingly, the same MCG stand - the Great Southern Stand - that Warne becalmed will now be named after him.
“That summed him up, that moment,” Stewart said.
“He was the man of the people and everyone worshipped him really. It worked and there was nothing else thrown on. It went from not being ideal to normal. It was the Warnie worship really.
“It is always when someone has gone that you realised what will be missed.”
Stewart, who is serving as England’s interim coach and learned of Warne’s passing at a training session at the Oval, said he’d always loved playing against the Australian spinner, despite being his most frequent Test victim.
Warne dismissed the former England captain 14 times in Tests; none more memorable than a wickedly unplayable flipper at the Gabba in 1994. Warne claimed career-best figures of 8-71 in the same innings.
“I probably saw more of him than I should have done,” Stewart laughed.
“I always use the term it was pure theatre, and he was the main man. He was the headline act. When you were stood in your batting crease there, you had to somehow try and take all that out of the equation and think ‘just focus on the ball, focus on the ball’. He created pure drama and theatre.
“When he retired, he didn’t just leave a hole in Australian cricket. He left a hole in world cricket. We won’t see his like again.
“It is very sad, especially with Rod (Marsh) going only a few hours earlier.
“Just unbelievable. Two greats. They’ll be missed.”
