Saqlain was phenomenal while his doosra was a mystery. After that SL and IND took to him very hard. I can remember that Atapattu was the one to play aggressor to Saqlain. Atapattu used his feet, late cut, drove against spin and kept run a ball against Saqlain. Later when Lankans got to know the doosra (first demonstrated by Dharmasena), Aravinda and Jayasuriya simply went after Saqlain in closing overs.
Small matter of around 200 ODI wickets separating the two, and both have excellent matchwinning performances in the big games. So yeah, it's a straightforward choice to rate Wasim above Warne for me as an ODI bowler.
Although there's another small matter of 160ish more games too. Personally, I'd probably take Wasim over Warne too but that wasn't really the point. It's that many here are obsessed with numbers and numbers only, and also the player in questions performances against their favourite Asian sides.
If you're singling out players' records against individual nations, then finding out how they fared against Australia, South Africa and Pakistan is far more relevant than India, as they were the 3 strongest sides in the 90s. Regardless of how well Indians played spin. Warne's performances against South Africa and Pakistan in the semis and final of the 99 World Cup should carry far more weight than some random ODI in one of the many tournaments played in Sharjah.
That may be true for one JAMODI. But when you consider 100 such random ODIs, they carry more weight than a single WC semi final. (Or otherwise, no mortal can touch Aravinda de Silva as a ODI player if WC finals are the most important thing)
Don't particularly disagree with what you're saying, and I'm the first to give Warne credit for his WC performances but it's also interesting to note that the sides he destroyed in those games aren't known to be particularly accomplished against spin. Against SL in the '96 final, he had a torrid time against Ranatunga and Gurusinha. The truth lies somewhere in between what you and Ankit are arguing. He was a great big match bowler, but also liable to get pasted by very good players of spin. A bit more so than Murali, IMHO. But that is also because they are different styles of bowlers altogether.
What has to be seen is also the grounds that the respective played their cricket in. The average scores in grounds where Wasim played most of his cricket is probably much higher than where Warne or other players in the list played.
Neither South Africa or Pakistan can be considered terrible players of spin though. They were the best sides Australia would have faced in Warne's era, and his numbers against them stack up pretty well. Using India as the benchmark for ODI spinners in Warne and Saqlain's era is massively flawed IMO - yes, they might be better players of spin, and Warne in particular has a shocking record against them, but if India are the sole benchmark for how we rate ODI spinners then Ashley Giles and Michael Clarke would be the two best ODI spinners of the past 10 years.
I don't think anybody is trying to argue that India are the sole benchmark for judging spinners. Although they are an important factor and I don't think that should be denied.
Not for the era in which Warne and Saqlain played. Australia, South Africa and Pakistan were by far the best ODI sides in the era, and Sri Lanka and arguably the West Indies were better ODI outfits than India.
