#1st. Shane Warne, 652 points
Featured on 35 of 35 lists
Highest finish: 1st (10 times)
Ranking within spin discipline: 1st of 16 (Leg Break Googly)
Test WPM ranking: 9th of 43 (4.88)
Though he featured near the bottom of one, Warne made it onto every single list and was the only man to do so. This is what helped him narrowly edge out O'Reilly and Murali and claim the gold in this countdown. He finished 1st on 6 less lists than Murali but still pipped his rival in the end. A worthy winner IMO.
After Bradman you'd have to say Warne is the most iconic Australian cricketer. His career was full of off-field drama, from his diuretics ban to the bookie scandal, to various affairs and texting dramas. He said the wrong thing several times in interviews and articles and now his commentary career is a bit of a joke tbqh. Though to me he's a bit of a lovable fool off the field. But on the field he was absolutely all business and an absolute student of the game. His IQ went up 20 points with the ball in hand and he was a master at figuring out how to best dismiss a batsman.
Warne exerted almost no energy in his run-up. He walked in casually and then rolled his arm over with a grunt. The ball would often do magic from there and we've all seen the countless wonder balls he produced, with the standard leg break and flippers(at the beginning of his career) being his best weapons. He made leg-spin ***y again in a time when it was almost a lost art and inspired countless young kids to emulate his action. When Warner and Smith bowl their part time leggies it's obvious who they based their actions off. Warne is the owner of the 'ball of the century', easily the most famous test delivery ever bowled. He was the first to take 700 test wickets with a ball almost as good as the ball of the century which put him on the map years earlier. Warne had some amazing performances in high profile World Cup matches, including winning Man of the Match in the '96 Semi, '99 Semi and '99 Final. 3 out of the 5 WC knockout games he played in he stole the show. He scored the most test runs without scoring a century after dramatically falling for 99. Fame and controversy followed Warne wherever he went, it was quite ridiculous. His test career was a soap opera and even after it there was still his high profile relationship with Liz Hurley, his rant against Steve Waugh on a reality TV show and a running feud with Marlon Samuels including a famous and hilarious incident in the big bash.
His 195 ashes wickets is a record that I can't see ever being topped. And he had to compete with McGrath for so many of those wickets. From the initial ball of the century to the 40 wickets he took in 2005 he pretty much dominated England whenever he got the chance to play them. They were responsible for his test best of 8/71 and his only test hat-trick. Granted it was a weak time for English cricket(perhaps in part to having to bat against Warne so often), but he performed equally good against other sides. Against the 9 test nations he played against he averaged under 30 overall against all but one of them, that being India. He played most of those tests in India and averaged over 40 there. They possessed Sachin, VVS and Dravid and were the best players of spin during Warne's career. In the West Indies he also did poorly, averaging 37. This included a rare and famous occurrence of him being dropped in the 1999 series after Lara had taken him apart. Interesting that his two biggest failures came against the very best, Sachin and Lara. This did little to deter him and he bounced back from the '99 dropping with the back-to-back MOM performances in the '99 WC Semi and Final. His return after his one year ban for diuretics resulted in an amazing 26 wicket series winning away performance against Sri Lanka in just 3 tests. You couldn't keep Warnie down.
He had so many notable moments and is so well regarded that it may come as a bit of surprise that his test average was 25. Quite a fair bit higher than many others who are considered lesser spinners than him. I don't think it's even in the top 10 for this list. But Warne was happy to leak a boundary if it meant he could get a batsman playing shots. He'd much rather have conceded a boundary than a single which meant he had to devise a new plan for the new striker. There's a famous clip of him serving up a crappy flipper to Daryl Cullinan, gifting him a four and lulling him into a false sense of security(sorry for the cliche). Richie Benaud forewarns on commentary with 'now that seems to be the one he shows them'. A few balls later and he rips in a much deadlier version of the flipper and clean bowls his man. His demolition of Daryl's psyche and test reputation is well documented. He bowled KP round his legs to spark a day 5 collapse and shock Aussie win at Adelaide in '06 after KP had said on record 'Warne will never bowl me round my legs'.
Everything just seemed to come up Warne and here he is winning this countdown. Well done Warnie.
