You made it further than me. Twenty years before Warne - ten or more before Mushtaq - I had nobody more celebrated than Jack Alabaster to look to as I tried to be a leg spinner in 70s Auckland. I made it to senior grade cricket, but gave it away after an entire 40-over innings at square leg watching the captain's favourite medium-pacers …
You made it further than me. Twenty years before Warne - ten or more before Mushtaq - I had nobody more celebrated than Jack Alabaster to look to as I tried to be a leg spinner in 70s Auckland. I made it to senior grade cricket, but gave it away after an entire 40-over innings at square leg watching the captain's favourite medium-pacers get flogged for 250 for 1 and never getting closer to the bowling crease than the between-overs change. The explanation? Spin would have been too big a risk. Aside from a few nostalgic old blokes on the club selection panel, nobody at all wanted to know then. Rock and roll started to seem a lot more attractive than spending my Saturdays as a specialist outfielder.
Personally, I would like to remember Shane Warne as he appears in your final GIF – scanning the field, fizzing the ball from hand to hand and endlessly scheming.
You made it further than me. Twenty years before Warne - ten or more before Mushtaq - I had nobody more celebrated than Jack Alabaster to look to as I tried to be a leg spinner in 70s Auckland. I made it to senior grade cricket, but gave it away after an entire 40-over innings at square leg watching the captain's favourite medium-pacers get flogged for 250 for 1 and never getting closer to the bowling crease than the between-overs change. The explanation? Spin would have been too big a risk. Aside from a few nostalgic old blokes on the club selection panel, nobody at all wanted to know then. Rock and roll started to seem a lot more attractive than spending my Saturdays as a specialist outfielder.
Personally, I would like to remember Shane Warne as he appears in your final GIF – scanning the field, fizzing the ball from hand to hand and endlessly scheming.