Warne ... after claiming his 500th wicket yesterday.
-Reuters photo
LONDON, (Reuters):
SHANE WARNE has spent his career writing unlikely scripts.
In that context, the story of his historic 500th Test wicket yesterday was nothing out of the ordinary.
It just happened to come in his first Test back from a 12-month ban. And it inspired Australia to victory over Sri Lanka in a match they had seemed destined to lose (see match report: B5).
The 34-year-old Warne's broad smile in Galle after he removed Hashan Tillakaratne provided the perfect mirror image of his downbeat demeanour in February 2003, on the eve of the World Cup.
HEADING HOME
Warne was heading home without bowling a ball after it had been announced he had failed a drugs test. He had been expecting to form part of another Australian triumph. As in the 1999 World Cup, he probably expected another man-of-the-match performance in the Johannesburg final.
Instead, 'Hollywood' flew home alone and straight into a barrage of criticism and derision after he claimed he had unknowingly taken the diuretic, which can be used to mask other drugs, in a slimming pill given to him by his mother.
Warne, born in the Melbourne suburbs and who grew up dreaming of a career as an Australian Rules footballer, has always been a controversial figure.
As a youngster, he was seen as rebellious, lazy and lacking discipline, more likely to be found with a surfboard or a cold beer in his hand than in the nets.
Later, he was one of three Australian players who accused Pakistan's Salim Malik of attempting to bribe them to throw a test match in 1994.
It later emerged that Warne had himself accepted money from an Indian bookmaker. He said it had been a gift and was duly fined by the Australian Cricket Board over the incident.
There were also reports of Warne sending a lewd message to a nurse in England, an incident which cost him the Australia vice-captaincy.
But few people would deny he stands among the greatest men to play the game. Many, indeed, believe he single-handedly revitalised the art of leg spin, an achievement acknowledged when he was named as one of the Wisden almanac's five cricketers of the 20th century.
His 501 test wickets, second on the all-time list just behind Courtney Walsh's 519 and at an average of 25.51, in 108 games make the point eloquently, even before his 291 one-day victims are added to the equation.
