The Sean
Cricketer Of The Year
We're just one short of the all time top three, and so the countdown continues with a footy player who spun leggies down in his spare time.
4.
Shane Warne | Cricket Players and Officials | Cricinfo.com
Nominated by 100% of voters - highest ranking no.1
It is a testament not only to Shane Keith Warne's extraordinary ability as a legspinner but also to his monumental impact on the game of cricket as a whole that he is the one and only player to have been nominated by everyone who contributed a list to this exercise. Acknowledged (with apologies to the Tiger and the Pimpernel) as the greatest legspin bowler of all time, more than one good judge of the game has gone further and claimed that Warney is - by both deed and legacy - the greatest bowler of any kind ever to pick up a ball, and as the highest ranking pure bowler on our list it would seem that CricketWeb agrees. One of the most charismatic, talked about and spectacularly controversial sportsmen of his or any other generation, Warne's talents as a cricketer were sometimes almost eclipsed by his seemingly self-destructive nature and peerless ability to become tabloid fodder. Warne more than once referred to his life as a soap opera and he wasn't wrong. But it was a soap opera that kept the eyes of the cricketing world - and much of the world beyond cricket, for that matter - glued to the blonde Victorian leggie for the better part of two decades.
Warne's early career gave no indication of the superstardom which would follow. A frustrated Australian Rules footballer, he was selected for Australia after just a handful of First Class matches and suffered a drubbing on Test debut from India's batsmen - not the last time that would happen, incidentally. But within a year he was winning a Test in Sri Lanka, taking 7-for against the West Indies and then capturing the world's attention with "that" ball to Mike Gatting which preceded a triumphant Ashes series. 1993 was the first of three consecutive years in which Warne would take more than 50 Test wickets, and for much of the '90s he was virtually unplayable. His 300th Test wicket came in January 1998, but after that came several barren years - injuries, loss of form, a balooning of weight and more regular brushes with authority, the press and fans. Despite continued ODI success and particular praise as a clever and enterprising captain, he was overlooked for the Test captaincy and even dropped on one occasion, and it seemed that the best of Warney had been and gone. But in a remarkable turnaround Warne took 31 wickets in the 2001 Ashes series, and in the ensuing years he was better than ever. Controversy was still never far away - an enforced year off for taking banned diuretics saw to that - but his bowling was simply sublime. Ironically, in a career of so many triumphs Warne's crowning individual performance came in defeat - his 40 wickets in the 2005 Ashes series, in a losing cause and all, was one of the all time great Test displays. Retiring after the 5-0 revenge drubbing in 06/07 with a then world record 708 Test wickets to his name, Warne's position as the second biggest name in the history of Australian cricket has become more and more assured with time and reflection. If and when the movie of his life is made, we'll surely all be queueing up to see it.
Only three to go now and you know who they are, so I'll keep them rolling tomorrow...
4.
Shane Warne | Cricket Players and Officials | Cricinfo.com
Nominated by 100% of voters - highest ranking no.1
It is a testament not only to Shane Keith Warne's extraordinary ability as a legspinner but also to his monumental impact on the game of cricket as a whole that he is the one and only player to have been nominated by everyone who contributed a list to this exercise. Acknowledged (with apologies to the Tiger and the Pimpernel) as the greatest legspin bowler of all time, more than one good judge of the game has gone further and claimed that Warney is - by both deed and legacy - the greatest bowler of any kind ever to pick up a ball, and as the highest ranking pure bowler on our list it would seem that CricketWeb agrees. One of the most charismatic, talked about and spectacularly controversial sportsmen of his or any other generation, Warne's talents as a cricketer were sometimes almost eclipsed by his seemingly self-destructive nature and peerless ability to become tabloid fodder. Warne more than once referred to his life as a soap opera and he wasn't wrong. But it was a soap opera that kept the eyes of the cricketing world - and much of the world beyond cricket, for that matter - glued to the blonde Victorian leggie for the better part of two decades.
Warne's early career gave no indication of the superstardom which would follow. A frustrated Australian Rules footballer, he was selected for Australia after just a handful of First Class matches and suffered a drubbing on Test debut from India's batsmen - not the last time that would happen, incidentally. But within a year he was winning a Test in Sri Lanka, taking 7-for against the West Indies and then capturing the world's attention with "that" ball to Mike Gatting which preceded a triumphant Ashes series. 1993 was the first of three consecutive years in which Warne would take more than 50 Test wickets, and for much of the '90s he was virtually unplayable. His 300th Test wicket came in January 1998, but after that came several barren years - injuries, loss of form, a balooning of weight and more regular brushes with authority, the press and fans. Despite continued ODI success and particular praise as a clever and enterprising captain, he was overlooked for the Test captaincy and even dropped on one occasion, and it seemed that the best of Warney had been and gone. But in a remarkable turnaround Warne took 31 wickets in the 2001 Ashes series, and in the ensuing years he was better than ever. Controversy was still never far away - an enforced year off for taking banned diuretics saw to that - but his bowling was simply sublime. Ironically, in a career of so many triumphs Warne's crowning individual performance came in defeat - his 40 wickets in the 2005 Ashes series, in a losing cause and all, was one of the all time great Test displays. Retiring after the 5-0 revenge drubbing in 06/07 with a then world record 708 Test wickets to his name, Warne's position as the second biggest name in the history of Australian cricket has become more and more assured with time and reflection. If and when the movie of his life is made, we'll surely all be queueing up to see it.
Only three to go now and you know who they are, so I'll keep them rolling tomorrow...
Anyway, a great bowler and player. He had great charisma to match and it was always a pleasure to watch Warney bowl.
