Thread by @KShriniwasRao

#Thread -- The King!

“How ya doin mate? Good to see ya…”

It was a line he greeted every second person with when in India for the IPL. Shane Warne knew everybody, and everybody knew Shane Warne here.

India had become home after he became IPL's first buy in 2008. (1/25)

Greetings exchanged; he’d talk you into a corner wherever he could light up. The longer you stayed in conversation, the more he’d keep lighting up. I’ve not seen anyone smoke that vigorously. Not even SRK.

Chatting him up, though, was always great fun. (2/25)

It was party night at a South Mumbai five-star in 2019. Shane’s hosts had invited me for an evening with the man – just a casual get-together. I walked up, walked in, met him, and shook hands. “How ya doin mate? Good to see ya…”

That was the last time I met him. (3/25)

The cigarette was lit. Vodka was doing rounds. He looked like he was having fun. He always did.

This wasn’t the first time I was meeting him, so benefit of hindsight told me --- always expect the unexpected. Shane was never the kind who flinched.

“Get a drink”. (4/25)

He had a dozen things to talk about. Why no super-subs in IPL, why wasn't IPL allowing franchises to play exhibition games overseas, what was going to be the next big thing...

No newness!

IPL, he kept reminding me, desperately needed Lalit Modi to come back. (5/25)

Guests came to ask for selfies, shook hands. He broke into a smile each time & obliged.

"IPL needs someone like Lalit again. It needs glamour, it needs controversies, it needs to be flashy... you know what I mean?

Of course.

And then, suddenly, he'd go all old school... (6/25)

“Why’s Kuldeep Yadav not in the team?”

The Shane we loved was in the house.

He loved Kuldeep. He insisted he must play ahead of another leading spinner. He said he loved watching him.

Just like he loved Bumrah -- "He has his style. Just let him be."

This was Feb 2019. (7/25)

The thing I’m trying to share here is, Shane's mind kept racing all the time. He couldn’t be too fixated about anything for too long.

It was impossible to keep pace with him. He’d move from one subject to another before you’d comprehend what he’d just said. (8/25)

We all speak of how happy we are that Test cricket is doing well. He was never worried in the first place.

“It’s funny how everybody wants to come out and save Test cricket. Everyone feels something needs to be done about it. I don’t think there’s much wrong with it”. (9/25)

T20, he said, was a quick-fix. He knew what he was saying.

“It’s going to be a hit among people with little patience. I may want to take my girlfriend out for dinner, a game of cricket and come back home – T20 allows that. It’s the ODIs that are in real danger,” he said. (10/25)

Interesting that it was his generation – alongside the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Sanath Jayasuriya & Wasim Akram and so many legends – who made the ODIs what they became. “Appetites for ODIs are going to diminish,” he told me in 2012. (11/25)

Warne had little interest in Day & Night Tests too – don’t know if he changed his views on it later.
But 10 years ago, he clearly felt “Test cricket must be played under the sun where natural elements play a role in defining the game”. (12/25)

He strongly believed ‘a good cricketer would always know how to differentiate between formats. Nobody would have to tell him that.

“Who says, he look, that’s a legendary T20 cricketer”.
“Your ability as a cricketer will always be judged by the way you play the red ball”. (13/25)

In that same conversation, he also said something that reminds us why Virat is special.
“It’s up to the captains to make Test cricket more interesting/entertaining. The idea should be trying to win a Test at all costs. That’s what’s going to keep the game exciting”. (14/25)

Warne was always a one-team man. Australia, St Kilda, Victoria, Hampshire, Rajasthan Royals. All the places gave him a sense of belonging. “They just wanted me to do well. There was a feeling of appreciation. I felt their kindness. I wanted to pay back their loyalty”. (15/25)

He began to love the ‘underdog’ tag. Being part of Aussie teams that he was, he wouldn’t have known what ‘underdog’ meant.

He experienced it with RR and helped them experience what success meant. “The tournament infused so much positivity". (16/25)

What he loved most about India were fans. “Nowhere in the world can you create that kind of energy. There’s no place like India when it comes to following the game with so much passion.”

He says -- IPL has helped Indian fans connect with the cricketers better. (17/25)

Once asked him if Virat & Sachin were comparable. I’ll quote verbatim (3 yrs ago):
I want to wait & see. To think someone was better than Sachin & Lara -- in mid-90s -- against Wasim, Waqar, Curtly, Courtney, McGrath, Donald, Saqlain, Mushy, Murali, myself..... (grins) (18/25)

Two rules he wanted changed in cricket: 1) Take away the on-field umpire's decision on DRS; 2) If you don't bowl your overs in time, captain misses two games (introduce it). Flat rule should be: A team cannot bowl less than 90 overs in a day. (19/25)

He said he liked DRS DRS only if it is used right. “It's simple: Take away the original umpire's decision. You can't have exactly the same ball being given out and not out depending on what the on-field decision was. It's either out or not out.” (20/25)

DRS takes into account that once the ball its the surface, it tends to get slower. "I'd like to think so. But if I think of Perth in late 80s & early 90s, the ball seemed to gather pace off the pitch. Maybe that was the swiftness from bounce. I don't know." (21/25)

Warne hated how KL & Hardik were targeted for a TV show they did some years back. “Good lord, it’s all about political correctness these days. Just let them be,” he said. “Twitter’s spoilt everything,” he would joke. “The big boys finished playing before Twitter arrived”. (22/25)

He loved and respected Sachin Tendulkar but was at great pains to explain how the “nightmares” story wasn’t correct. He said, it was just like one of those things about he wanting to coach India when Kirsten was exiting. “I never said that,” he told me in 2011. (23/25)

The thing with Warne was, he was as comfortable in the ballroom of a five star, speaking to the who’s who, as comfortable he was standing in the corner of a hotel lobby, joking around, puffing away to glory.
He was everybody’s man. (24/25)

Here are links to couple of interviews. Will share more. (Ends)

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/new-zea…

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/i-never-h…