As the world continues to mourn the sad, untimely passing away of Shane Warne, who died due to a suspected heart attack on Friday while holidaying in a villa in Thailand, there are several stories being reminisced from cricketers who had known the legendary leg-spinner.
One story among those, as told by another Aussie great Ian Chappell a few months back, involves the current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and former India captain Sachin Tendulkar.
This incident is of the 1999 India vs Australia Test match in Adelaide. After Australia had piled up 441 in their first innings, and after India had been brought down at 107/4, Sourav Ganguly and the then skipper Sachin Tendulkar forged up a crucial century partnership to keep India alive in the contest.
However, it was time for Shane Warne to conjure up his magic and give Australia a breakthrough. But he needed some help from his lip: Shane Warne sledged Ganguly that the Adelaide had come to see Tendulkar bat and not him. Irked by this comment, Ganguly tried to step out to Warne and was stumped!
Shane Warne was the king of banter
Speaking in the documentary ‘Shane Warne’, Ian Chappell recalled: “To give you a classic example. Australia were playing India at the Adelaide Oval, and Shane had come round the wicket bowling to Ganguly. Now, Tendulkar was at the non-striker’s end. So Shane bowled three or four balls wide into the footmarks – some of them didn’t hit the footmarks so they didn’t come back as much, and Ganguly was just kicking them away.”
“And after three or four of these, Shane said ‘Hey mate, these 40,000 people here haven’t come here to see you block and kicking the ball, they have come to watch this bloke Sachin play shots.’ And about an over later, Ganguly ran down the track trying to hit him down the ground and he was out stumped,” he added.
Speaking about Shane Warne, the 52-year-old was found unresponsive by his friend at the villa on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand.
He was rushed to the hospital but was eventually pronounced dead at a local hospital, stunning the world. Tributes have since been pouring in from all corners.
Considered as arguably the best-ever bowler, Shane Warne made his debut against India in 1992, and went on to attain greatness in spin bowling, claiming 1001 international wickets – 293 in ODIs and 708 Test wickets – a tally only bettered by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan. He won five Ashes series and the 1999 World Cup, playing a crucial role in all of them.
