Bowling, Shane.
March 4, 2022 4:20 PM Subscribe
Shane Warne, legendary spin bowler, has died at 52. Warne died of an apparent heart attack in Thailand, not long after posting a tribute to fellow Australian cricket legend Rod Marsh.
The Gatting ball. More.
The Gatting ball. More.
Ah bloody hell. He was an absolute magician. I didn't know about Rod Marsh until reading this article. A sad day for Aussie cricket.
posted by essexjan at 5:31 PM on March 4, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by essexjan at 5:31 PM on March 4, 2022 [4 favorites]
Brandman at the crease, Marsh behind the rubbish-bin wicket, and Warne at the bowlers clothesline end.
Add in Benaud calling the action, with a cold beer from under the veranda, and that would be well worth the price of admission.
Warne was a pain in the ass for whoever he was playing against. But what a legend.
.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:43 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
Add in Benaud calling the action, with a cold beer from under the veranda, and that would be well worth the price of admission.
Warne was a pain in the ass for whoever he was playing against. But what a legend.
.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:43 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
As a casual Australian cricket watcher...I have no reaction to this. I guess I'm a bit young and remember him more for his post-career tabloid scandals than his playing.
posted by other barry at 8:09 PM on March 4, 2022
posted by other barry at 8:09 PM on March 4, 2022
At his peak, Warne could do magic with the ball, just have it suddenly change direction. Maybe if he hadn't been such a wizard, he might have been a better person off the field.
Just .s seems inappropriate for a bowler of his calibre.
W
posted by Merus at 8:23 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
Just .s seems inappropriate for a bowler of his calibre.
W
posted by Merus at 8:23 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
.../
posted by daksya at 8:51 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by daksya at 8:51 PM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
The introduction to the obituary from abc.net.au
Cricket's greatest bowler lived a life that veered wondrously between disaster and gloryposted by Thella at 9:43 PM on March 4, 2022 [8 favorites]
Warnie. Just Warnie. It is customary at a time so sombre, serious and upsetting to put it more formally: Shane Keith Warne, Australian cricket hero, is dead at 52.
But right now, as fans reel from the news, it is impossible to avoid conjuring images of Warne that are not sombre and serious at all. How could a "Warnie" moment ever be sombre and serious?
He's windmilling his bowling arm after taking a wicket. He's dancing on the balcony with a stump over his head. He's sending that perfect leg-break past a flummoxed Mike Gatting — the ball of that century, and probably all others — launching himself from the status of budding star to immortal in one flick of the wrist.
He's lifting David Boon into the air at the MCG, celebrating a hat-trick in front of his home crowd, as Tony Greig loses his mind with delight. He's sitting sheepishly in front of a sponsor's backdrop issuing an apology — so many apologies, so many sins forgiven in the name of a talent nobody else possessed.
He's standing with Michael Jordan or Michael Hutchence, finally in the company of someone who understands what it's like to be so famous and adored but also torn down and disgraced, transcending the thing they do and becoming something else entirely — something beyond their control.
He's cavorting — was Warnie the last great cavorter? — around a hotel room in grainy black and white, embroiling himself in scandal. He's on 99 against New Zealand, skying one into the deep, the captivation of those present extending to the umpire, who misses the no-ball that he should have called.[Had the no-ball been called, Warne would have scored his first, and only, century. It wasn't called and he never scored one].
He's sitting in a commentary box telling the story about the shot above — not the shot, so much, but the no-ball, because he's spent his entire life cultivating a larrikin image but moments like this still grate 20, 30 years on, and in his mind he's still there, on the field, the star of all stars, but also an incorrigible little boy who doesn't want to stop batting and never wants to grow up.
He's doubled over laughing, talking about pizza or Happy Days or Rod Stewart — anything other than the game itself, and you kinda want to throttle him, but then you think about moments like the one that comes next.
He's leaning over the balcony at Lord's, the pride of a nation, hooting and hollering, the 1999 World Cup trophy wrapped up in a bear hug, and you know that Australia probably wouldn't have won it without the man who put it all on the line, attacking every cricket contest the same way he attacked life.
And now you struggle to process that he's gone — too soon, in a foreign land, in circumstances that shock you. But perhaps it was bound to happen in a way that would shock you. Perhaps it had to happen before you were ready, before you could wrap your head around what it would be like to lose a man who spent his entire public life shocking you.
So, Warnie will do. Just Warnie.
Ah man. His bowling was sublime and I loved to hate him (and that whole generation of Aussie cricketers). Absolute genius with the ball.
posted by bxvr at 9:47 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bxvr at 9:47 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don't really follow cricket but I do love watching test cricket when the opportunity arises. Warnie was always the reason to stick around for a few more overs.
posted by Foaf at 11:43 PM on March 4, 2022
posted by Foaf at 11:43 PM on March 4, 2022
I hope a few of the non-cricket fans here watch that video, it’s still amazing after all this time. What strikes you first is how much the ball turns when it bounces, but watching the replay I’m struck by how much the ball drifts beforehand as well.
Both movements are a bit exaggerated by the stretched aspect ratio of the video in the post, but it still looks fantastic without that.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 12:33 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Both movements are a bit exaggerated by the stretched aspect ratio of the video in the post, but it still looks fantastic without that.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 12:33 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
He’s probably one of the best players to ever play the game. It’s so weird to think he’s gone.
posted by awfurby at 1:39 AM on March 5, 2022
posted by awfurby at 1:39 AM on March 5, 2022
.
When Warne was bowling, you knew something was going to happen. On a bad day slow bowlers get slogged for runs. On a good day, they create mistakes. Warne had many more of the latter days than the former. I'm sad to think I won't grow old with his as the voice of summer, sharing insights in the commentary box, because he made the game more interesting to watch from there too.
.
posted by bigZLiLk at 5:08 AM on March 5, 2022
When Warne was bowling, you knew something was going to happen. On a bad day slow bowlers get slogged for runs. On a good day, they create mistakes. Warne had many more of the latter days than the former. I'm sad to think I won't grow old with his as the voice of summer, sharing insights in the commentary box, because he made the game more interesting to watch from there too.
.
posted by bigZLiLk at 5:08 AM on March 5, 2022
I don't know anything about cricket, as an USian, but that ball of the century is something else indeed.
posted by allthinky at 5:44 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by allthinky at 5:44 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Gosh he was so young. Only 52! What a tragedy.
I remember being an 11 yr old in India, going bananas over bowlers... At first this was an affectation: I was trying to be different because batsmen got all the glory, but the affectation soon turned more genuine because it's hard not to love bowlers once you start to "see" bowling.
Shane Warne was just about the most fun -to-watch on the pitch. He had this energy like a dorky kid, you know? made you want to reach into the TV and muss his hair. I remember thinking he was super appealing even though I was not yet ready to start having crushes on players. My feelings for him were ~pure~ lol.
That Gatting ball, whew, my cousin (who is now a pro sportsman himself) had taped the match and he sat all the rest of us (about 12 cousins total) down and forced us to watch that delivery and all the replays like three times. It was headline news in the sports section that some young upstart from Australia had bowled the perfect leg spin.
I stopped keeping up with cricket when I moved to non-cricketing countries, and I never even knew about why of his scandals because I was so young back when I liked him. So before I go read about his controversies and shatter my pure childhood adulation for him, I want to take a minute to say, Warne! How can he be gone? I feel a real pang of loss.
(Ah, thank goodness, no allegations of sexual assault or victimizing people in horrible ways. Seems like he was a "good time lad" so to speak, lots of extra marital affairs and using charitable funds to throw "fundraiser" parties. Not shattering.)
posted by MiraK at 6:58 AM on March 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
I remember being an 11 yr old in India, going bananas over bowlers... At first this was an affectation: I was trying to be different because batsmen got all the glory, but the affectation soon turned more genuine because it's hard not to love bowlers once you start to "see" bowling.
Shane Warne was just about the most fun -to-watch on the pitch. He had this energy like a dorky kid, you know? made you want to reach into the TV and muss his hair. I remember thinking he was super appealing even though I was not yet ready to start having crushes on players. My feelings for him were ~pure~ lol.
That Gatting ball, whew, my cousin (who is now a pro sportsman himself) had taped the match and he sat all the rest of us (about 12 cousins total) down and forced us to watch that delivery and all the replays like three times. It was headline news in the sports section that some young upstart from Australia had bowled the perfect leg spin.
I stopped keeping up with cricket when I moved to non-cricketing countries, and I never even knew about why of his scandals because I was so young back when I liked him. So before I go read about his controversies and shatter my pure childhood adulation for him, I want to take a minute to say, Warne! How can he be gone? I feel a real pang of loss.
(Ah, thank goodness, no allegations of sexual assault or victimizing people in horrible ways. Seems like he was a "good time lad" so to speak, lots of extra marital affairs and using charitable funds to throw "fundraiser" parties. Not shattering.)
posted by MiraK at 6:58 AM on March 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
He had a bad case of covid-19 seven months ago requiring hospitalization and breathing assistance. There are going to be a lot of these surprise heart attacks to come in the next year or so.
posted by srboisvert at 7:11 AM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 7:11 AM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
srboisvert: "He had a bad case of covid-19 seven months ago requiring hospitalization and breathing assistance. There are going to be a lot of these surprise heart attacks to come in the next year or so."
Yes, and the lunatic fringe is already blaming the vaccine, not the disease.
posted by chavenet at 7:27 AM on March 5, 2022
Yes, and the lunatic fringe is already blaming the vaccine, not the disease.
posted by chavenet at 7:27 AM on March 5, 2022
I remember everyone in the 80s wanted to be a fast bowler and then suddenly in the 90s this changed to everyone wanting to be a spin bowler. Coincidence?
posted by piyushnz at 8:32 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by piyushnz at 8:32 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's funny, I don't follow or even understand cricket (I watched the videos on the Gatting ball and can't understand why it's so special, though I accept that it is - I just don't have the ability to appreciate it) and somehow this still makes me sad. Stories about him were hard to avoid even for a non-sportsball person like me, and I didn't particularly like him. But I can't help but respect him and admire the gusto with which he seems to have lived his life.
.
posted by Athanassiel at 12:40 PM on March 5, 2022
.
posted by Athanassiel at 12:40 PM on March 5, 2022
Bowled, Shane.
I only want the famous mural to be preserved...
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:50 PM on March 6, 2022
I only want the famous mural to be preserved...
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:50 PM on March 6, 2022
Athanassiel - I’ll try and help you. Get a tennis ball, go find a piece of carpet - perhaps the hallway in a house. Throw the ball a few meters away from you and when it hits the floor it should bounce and turn left.
It won’t. Now try and figure out how to do it.
posted by awfurby at 1:08 AM on March 7, 2022
It won’t. Now try and figure out how to do it.
posted by awfurby at 1:08 AM on March 7, 2022
awfurby, I totally accept it's extraordinary. My physical coordination is so lacking that getting a ball to go where you intend to throw it seems amazing. I might also appreciate it more if it didn't happen so fast that even on a slow motion replay I can't follow what happened.
posted by Athanassiel at 1:28 AM on March 7, 2022
posted by Athanassiel at 1:28 AM on March 7, 2022
I’m not a huge sportsball fan, but what a sad thing for the family. Please avoid crash diets everyone, especially if you’ve had COVID.
posted by ec2y at 4:42 PM on March 9, 2022
posted by ec2y at 4:42 PM on March 9, 2022
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He was also a bit of a socialite, dating Elizabeth Hurley, and a bit vain with highlights and plastic surgery, but he was a fair dinkum Aussie cricketing lad whose death at only 52 was totally unexpected. Especially following the death of Rod Marsh, 74, earlier in the day following a heart attack a few days prior.
Backyard cricket in the afterlife: Brandman at the crease, Marsh behind the rubbish-bin wicket, and Warne at the bowlers clothesline end.
posted by Thella at 5:12 PM on March 4, 2022 [12 favorites]