**** it, I've been laying off because I don't like disrespecting the dead, but here's why imo Warne isn't in the upper pantheon of ATG bowlers.
Everyone knows that in the comparison between Warne and Murali once you take out the minnows the stats are pretty comparable (let's put aside the fact that those minnow wickets are pretty essential for SL to convert those matches into wins). Warne gets the better away SR, and Murali has a higher WPI.
The problem is those are just silly raw numbers that don't take into account the context. It's not Marshall or Gilly, or anyone else who might have had great team support, but Warne is the biggest downhill skier of all time, and that's propped up his legacy. Being the spinner on a team with an ATG pace attack, he's getting a disproportionate amount of bowling load skewed towards the second innings, and that basically guarantees 9/10 times he's working in a lot of already favorable positions. To add to that, batsmen in those days were really hindered from going into counterattack when their teams were behind, in the chance of saving draws, and this also happened to play right into Warne's hands. He was much better at attacking defensive batsmen, and didn't like being under the cosh of a more attacking approach, part of the reason he didn't favor and had to leave ODIs, whether it's admitted to or not. Everything ended up playing into perfect scenarios for him to succeed thae vast majority of the time. Put him against more aggressive modern batsmen, or on a different team and i don't think he ends up with quite as low of an average. Legendary player still, but I don't think there's any comparison to Murali, who imo rightly takes a place right alongside the big five pacers (Hadlee, Marshall, Ambrose, McGrath, Steyn).
I know this will be taken as nothing more than a rallying cry for this den of convicts to circle around their man, but the facts are the facts and I have to state it like it is. (In case you think I only single out Warne, among deceased past legends, I also think Kobe is overrated, as a rather too inefficient but highly talented player, who got rather enamored with the green light to be his team's late shot clock low percentage shooter).