Shane Warne, the legendary leggie from Australia was born on September 13, 1969. The 46-year-old was an adept in the art of leg-spin.
Australia’s maverick leg-spinner and ultimate bad boy is known for his stunning skill, and for being the first bowler in Test history to have taken 700 wickets.
Let’s have a look at some of the interesting facts about Shane Warne:
1. It was at the Institute that Damien Martynand Justin Langer came across Warne for the first time. He was an overweight youth sitting by himself, tucking into a family-sized pizza and guzzling down a can of Victoria Bitter.
2. At the Academy, Jack Potter, one of the managers of the cricket programme, taught him the fiendishly difficult skill of the flipper.
3. When he played his first Test match, against India at Sydney in 1992, Warne weighed 97 kilos.
4. Once at Trent Bridge Robert Croft hit him for six and was watching the replay on the giant screen. Warne told him, “Don’t worry mate, you will be able to see the replay again in a couple of minutes.” He was right.
5. Tendulkar scored 1209 against Australia in 12 Tests while Warne bowled at him, at an average of 60.45 with five hundred. Brian Lara played eight more Tests against Warne, scored 1837 at 54.02 with the same .number of centuries. Kevin Pietersen scored 963 at 53.50 in 10 Tests with two identical scores of 158.No other batsmen came remotely close to matching their feats. Warne prevailed over almost all his opponents.
6. With his first ball against England, in his first Ashes Test, Warne produced a spectacular delivery that bowled Gatting out. It became recognized as being of considerable significance in not just the context of the match or series, but the ‘ball of the century’.
VIDEO:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXanXViSEOI
7. Once Sourav Ganguly let patted near half-volleys defensively. Warne walked up to him, pointed at Sachin Tendulkar at the other end and said, “People have come here to watch that man play his strokes, not to see you block.” Soon, Ganguly stepped out, misread a ball horribly and was sprawling on the ground as he was stumped.
8. For a long time Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne never really got along. In the heat of the battle it couldn’t be picked, they buried their differences for the sake of the team. But beyond the boundary things weren’t good between them.
It actually began in the ‘Pura Cup’ game between Victoria and Western Australia in the late 1990s when Warne mercilessly sledged Gilchrist when he was batting.
9. Before India’s match against England in the 2011 World Cup, Warne tweeted – “My prediction, a tie.” When it was a tie, theFox Sports headline ran, “Genius or Match-fixer?”
10. The problems continued well into his post-international cricket days. Even in early 2013, Warne was fined $4500 and banned for a match for using obscene language, making inappropriate physical contact with Marlon Samuels and showing serious dissent at an umpire’s decision during a Big Bash League Match.
