“Hey! Rockstar…,” he yelled, not once but thrice.
When Ravindra Jadeja finally turned around, his face lit up.
Jadeja had seen his mentor, guru and idol Shane Warne walking around the boundary line, as India was closing out a win against South Africa at Cardiff during its triumphant campaign in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013.
The match was still in progress as Warne joked with Jadeja. “Where’s my commission?” asked Warne. Jadeja broke into a smile, even while ensuring that he was keeping an eye on the proceedings. Warne was walking with fellow commentator and former Indian player Sanjay Manjrekar for the post-match TV commitments. A surprised Manjrekar asked Warne what that was about. “I always joke with him (Jadeja) that he has become such a big cricketer now, I deserve some commission for all the initial work we put in,” Warne said.
Jadeja kept coming back to Warne in-between deliveries, and ‘promised’ to deliver the commission. Finally, as the conversation kept lingering on, an exasperated India captain - Mahendra Singh Dhoni - moved Jadeja from that particular fielding position and stationed him elsewhere. Warne promised to continue the conversation - the bond between the two was visible.
After all, Jadeja was Warne’s ‘Rockstar’ - Warne had predicted Jadeja would rule the roost for India on the cricket field. Over the years, Jadeja has done little to prove his mentor wrong. He is probably one of the world’s best Test all-rounders now.
The IPL years
It is hard to imagine a Melbourne boy bonding with a Rajkot no chokro (Rajkot’s boy) so closely. That bond had a lot to do with their initial stint with the Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural season of Indian Premier League (IPL).
Warne will forever be the first-ever man to be auctioned in an IPL player auction, for his base price of US$450,000 to Rajasthan Royals. He negotiated a deal with the owners by which he was both captain and coach.
“Part of my deal (was) because I had retired from international cricket and I came out (of retirement), they asked me to be the captain, coach and run a cricket team the way I wanted to run it; I was the one-stop shop,” Warne was quoted as saying by the Australian paper Herald Sun.
It worked wonders. Warne, never a fan of the concept of team coach, led a bunch of no-hopers to the title in the first year of IPL. He had retired from international cricket a year earlier in 2007, but was talked into coming to the IPL with an equity deal. Besides the fee, he also got a 0.75 percent stake in the franchise for every season he played for the Royals.
He was an instant hit with the side, money or no money. He was one of the boys off the field, but on it, he was a complete task master. One of the unique punishments was making a player carry Pinky, a pink doll, for breaking a team rule or curfew or coming late to the team bus or for simply making a mistake.
Who would have thought that a world champion like Warne would combine with Goa’s Swapnil Asnodkar, Rajasthan paceman Pankaj Singh and even internationals like Yusuf Pathan?
Each had a nickname that Warne handed out every year: Jadeja was Rockstar, and Asnodkar was ‘Goan Cannon’ in 2008. The following year (2009), Warne nicknamed the then entirely unknown player Kamran Khan ‘The Tornado’. Khan, a native of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, had come straight from tennis ball cricket, and instantly caught the fancy of Warne. Warne backed him completely and conversed in the ‘language of cricket’, as Khan was not comfortable with English.
The 1990s
Warne's IPL years simply confirmed the strong India connection that the magician had with the country, right from his Test debut in January 1992. Just over a month before his Test debut at Sydney, Warne featured as part of an Australian Prime Minister’s XI, when he first went head-to-head with his bete noire Sachin Tendulkar. A clip of that battle has gone viral since news of Warne’s death came out, but there was little indication of the future battle royale in December 1991.
Obviously, the Test debut in 1992 was a nightmare from hell for Warne, thanks to Ravi Shastri and Tendulkar.
Post that series, India and Warne went their separate ways.
Later in 1992, Warne gained notoriety as the magician as he first spun West Indies out, and then a year later, bamboozled Englishman Mike Gatting with the ‘ball of the century’ in the 1993 Ashes.
India and Australia met only in odd ODI matches. But each time, India found ways to tame Warne. At Sharjah in the 1994 Australasia Cup semi-final, it was Vinod Kambli, then Tendulkar took over later in the year in Colombo and Dunedin, New Zealand (1995).
In the meantime, the mythology around Warne grew manifold. Indians watched from afar as he made bunnies out of Englishmen and South Africans at will. His running feud with South Africa’s Darryl Cullinan was the stuff of legends. He had even accused Pakistan’s then skipper Salim Malik of offering him a bribe and had even been implicated in offering ‘pitch information’ to a bookie.
Only in 1996, when Australia landed in India for the World Cup, did this country see Warne in person for the first time. Warne struggled against India in the league game but weaved his magic against West Indies in the semi-final. Warne stole the hearts of Indians with his magic and showed just why he was the best in the world.
Baked beans and more
By the time Warne landed in India next, in 1998, he was one of the game’s superstars alongside Tendulkar and West Indies’ Brian Lara.
When he came to India for his first full Test series in 1998, he did so with more myths around him. This time about baked beans! It was said that Warne had decided to survive on tinned baked beans throughout the India tour to avoid spicy food. Though he did deny it two decades later.
"Let me tell you the story about the baked beans. Everyone thinks all I lived on in India for 12 weeks on the 1998 tour was baked beans. False, incorrect!” Warne announced on Twitter in 2020.
Baked beans apart, the tour will always be remembered for how Tendulkar prepared and countered Warne. Tendulkar first sought the services of former India leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan to prepare for Warne. Then went about meticulously dismantling Warne after the failure in the first innings of the first Test at Chennai.
“The way he blasted and hammered Shane Warne, who was bowling into the rough outside the leg stump. Warne was using the depth of the crease and when he used to pitch it up, Sachin used to hit it through the mid-off, mid-on region. That battle with Shane Warne is the best I have seen,” India’s V.V.S. Laxman recalled many years later.
Tendulkar did get the better of Warne for the next couple of months, including especially at Sharjah in that famous Desert Storm tournament of 1998. Mythology, Warne and India did combine once again, this time over Tendulkar. There was a quote attributed to Warne claiming he had nightmares about Tendulkar hitting him for boundaries.
"I can promise you Sachin is not in my dreams and thoughts today. I said probably, as a throwaway line tongue-in-cheek I said probably have nightmares about Sachin’s drive. I promise you I don't think about Sachin in my sleep," clarified Warne.
Turn of the century
By the time we entered the 21st century, Warne had to counter new Indian batters who treated him with equal disdain. One such moment came at Kolkata in 2001 when India defied the odds to beat a marauding Australian line-up. The Test is famous for India coming back from a follow-on to deny Australia. One whole day, Warne & Co were kept at bay by Rahul Dravid and Laxman as India set about destroying Australia’s dream of a series win.
“I remember standing in slips in between bowling about 4,000 overs and getting hammered around the ground. I discussed my favourite movies with Adam Gilchrist, we swapped hats, and tried everything to try and not think about it. My favourite songs... I think we were delirious,” Warne said on air during a recent broadcast on Sky Sports.
Australia had to wait three more years to win a series in India in 2004-05, and this time Warne was part of the squad on his final trip as a player to these shores. He also managed to achieve his first five-wicket haul in Tests against India during that 2004-05 series.
India came back in his life during the IPL and lasted for four years before it ended in a nightmare. He was fined US$50,000 for his altercation with a Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) official in his final season in the IPL in 2011. He did keep coming back as a broadcaster.
His association with one-time rival and long-time friend Tendulkar in a veteran’s cricket series in late 2015 on baseball grounds in the US, ended in disaster after just one season.
But India and Indians had a special place in their hearts for Warne. He was one of those characters whose mythology grew with time and enamoured everyone. A biopic on Warne’s life was on the cards, and an unnamed producer was waiting for him to sign the dotted line.
“A guy has written a script, his company wants to shoot it, so it's basically a Hollywood movie shot for India. And they're basing it on my story of how we put together the Royals in 2008 and they've 'Hollywood-ised' it. It's all sorts of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll stuff," Warne told PTI in 2015.
Perhaps ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar’ would be an apt title for this yet unknown biopic, if and when it hits the screens. Until that happens, scores of clips of Warne’s on-field exploits can keep us company forever!
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
