6 retired players who would still find a place in their respective teams
Harsha Bhogle once remarked-“Another flower must bloom, another boy must become a man.”This beautifully sums up the essence of retirement in a sport. The aura of our champion players seems to grow with each day after they are gone. All their failures on the turf are tucked in nicely in some dingy corner of our heart as we continue basking in the glory of the numerous achievements that defined their celebrated careers. And yet, the greedy fan inside us wants to have yet another glimpse of our hero; holding the bat, spinning the ball or intercepting the odd ball near the fence. Here’s a list of 6 retired players who would still find a place in their respective teams:
#1 Shane Warne
Some facts I am sure of. It was 1993; Old Trafford, First Ashes Test and Australian captain Allan Border had just tossed the ball to the young leg-spinner – Shane Warne. Facing him was England batsman- Mike Gatting who was well-known for his ability against spin bowling.
Some field adjustments ensued and Warne was ready to bowl his first ball in an Ashes Test. Slowly ambling to the crease, he tossed the ball up on leg stump, the ball drifting further down the leg-side, dipped alarmingly before turning almost a yard or two and swerved past the hapless blade of Gatting to nip the top of off-stump, sending the Australians in a state of utter frenzy. Gatting just stood there, dumbfounded, bamboozled by a magic delivery trying to figure what had just happened.
As he started the long walk back to the dressing room, still shaking his head in disbelief, the delivery that had just got him out got imprinted in the echelon of cricketing grandeur as – “The Ball of the Century”.
“That ball”, as it is often referred to, not only set the tone for the remainder of the series but also revived the dying art of leg-spin. Leg-breaks were in fashion again and a noble-calling in the sport had just found its most devoted practitioner.
Over the next 15 years, Shane Warne became the linchpin of an Australian bowling attack that ran through opposition, changing the course of the match on umpteen occasions. If a batsman started spotting his booming leg-break, he turned to his other variations like the flipper and the wrong-un to breach the batsman’s defence.
However, mind-games were as much a part of Warne’s armoury as the flipper and the wrong-un and he would use it profligately to get under the opponent’s skin. His battles with South African great- Daryl Cullinan in the early 1990s and more recently, with the batting maestro- Sachin Tendulkar are part of the cricket folklore.
In a career that spanned over 15 years, Warne played a total of 145 Tests in which he took 708 wickets at an astonishing average of 25.41. He also played 194 ODIs for Australia where he took 293 wickets at an average of 25.73; a grand tally of 1001 international wickets against a backdrop of a craft that wasn’t just fascinating but equally incisive. Shane Warne’s a one-off and easily the best leg-spinner the game of cricket has ever seen. And at a time when Australia has struggled to produce another leggie of his pedigree, there’s clearly room for Warne in the playing XI if he’s entertaining any thoughts of a comeback.