How Great Was Shane Warne?

He was part of a long line of Australian leg spin tradition – Bill O'Reilly, Clarrie Grimmet, and Richie Benaud - but he was the best

- Sunil Sampat

Just a few days ago, Sunil Gavaskar was talking on television about Don Bradman and his fantastic Test batting average. Bradman was bowled for a duck in his last Test innings by Eric Hollies to end his career averaging 99.96 in Test cricket. Gavaskar asked his fellow TV commentators why that ball from Hollies was not nominated as the ball of the century. It might well have been a tongue-in-cheek question, in keeping with Gavaskar's style of mischief to confuse his panellists.

What was so special about that Warne delivery to Gatting, the ball he bowled in 1993 to England's then best batsman against spin? Gatting had no idea what happened on that ball from Warne; he might as well have been batting blindfolded.

Warne gave the ball a fair amount of air. The ball drifted along its trajectory from middle to leg stump, and Gatting moved as if to glance it down to the fine leg. The batsman made no contact with the ball, which, having pitched outside the leg stump, should have been expected to miss the leg stump quite easily. However, Warne had tweaked the ball enough for it to turn back from outside leg, right across the hapless Gatting to hit the stumps. The bemused expression on Gatting's face and the unbelieving reactions from the commentary team might have suggested that some act of sorcery, some black magic, had been invoked that moment. It seemed there was no logical explanation for what had just happened. Warne seemed to have controlled the ball, as if magnetically.

But it wasn't just a freak delivery from Shane Warne. He had done similar things with the cricket ball before, and would continue with his magic in the future. Shane Warne was simply a magician with a cricket ball in hand.

If cricket is an art, undoubtedly, Shane Warne was one of its prime artisans.