Warne was the greatest spinner I’ve seen and an incredibly generous cricketer

The shockwaves are not confined to Australia. Shane Warne, like Rod Marsh, was a global presence in cricket. We were all trying to come to terms with the loss of Marsh, reading the torrent of tributes including this one from Warne, which suddenly acquired a haunting quality: “Sad to hear the news that Rod Marsh has passed. He was a legend of our great game and an inspiration to so many young boys and girls. Rod cared deeply about cricket and gave so much – especially to Australia and England players.” Then the second thunderbolt struck and this time without any warning.

Warne was a legend and an inspiration. He started under Marsh’s wing at the Adelaide academy before graduating in spectacular fashion to become the greatest spin bowler I’ve ever seen, someone who singlehandedly kept the art of wrist-spin bowling alive in the 1990s.

Marsh once counselled about the dangers of making a simple game too complicated. In that spirit we can analyse Warne’s greatness. Technically he was able to spin the ball vigorously and to land it in the right place with rare consistency for a wrist-spinner. He had the capacity to read a batsman’s mind and more importantly he could get under his skin, often prompting desperate acts of foolishness.

Warne was not the complete wrist-spinner. His googly, the one that spun into the right-hander, was probably inferior to that of England’s Adil Rashid. It was not that well-disguised and he did not use it very often. But that did not matter much. The leg break spun prodigiously as the replays of Mike Gatting and Andrew Strauss heading back to the pavilion as if betrayed by the cricketing gods demonstrate. And his flipper slid devilishly off the pitch as a famous dismissal of Alec Stewart reminds us.

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