Resumption of Warne
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bane Warne is back and doing what he likes most — writing his own notices. The Australian wrist spinner, banned for a year after taking a diuretic to assist his attempts to lose weight, returned to the national side last week in Sri Lanka and immediately bowled the team to a victory that was remarkable even by their Olympian standards. Resuming their second innings 161 runs behind, Australia eventually won by the little matter of 197 runs. Three batsmen made centuries to give the bowlers a chance, but it was Warne who hogged the headlines after taking five wickets for the second time in the match. And so Australia, who lost their last series in Sri Lanka, now have a wonderful chance of avenging that defeat under their new captain, Ricky Ponting, A year ago, when Warne faced a press conference in Johannesburg and announced that he was returning home from the World Cup before he had bowled a single ball, after failing that drugs test, it was uncertain whether he had any kind of future. Hampshire, the English club he was expected to captain, endured a miserable summer without him, and even the Aussies were rocked. They won the World Cup emphatically, but the recent Test series with India finished 1-1, with the Indian batsmen thumping the Australian bowlers all over the place.
But now that he is back, with the best wishes of everybody within the game, Warne appears good for a few dozen more wickets, His ninth in Colombo was the 500th of his Test career, and he should soon move past Courtney Walsh, the world record-holder. Nobody deserves the honour more, because nobody has done more to change the face of the game in recent years. When Warne emerged in 1991, slow bowlers only got on when the fast men needed a breather. Now they are everywhere, and winning matches, except in England.
His latest triumph may also he regarded as a victory for virtue. Warne outbowled Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka's 'unusual' finger spinner — unusual because, in the opinion of many people who watch cricket and the clear majority of those who play it, he throws the ball. But the International Cricket Council, which governs the game, is not particularly concerned about chucking. Umpires are encouraged not to bother, and so cheats prosper. Murali doesn't consider himself a cheat, claiming that he has an abnormal right arm, but cricket-lovers are entitled to hold a different view, and they do.
The Australians have always taken a dim view of chucking. Two of their leading umpires have no-balled Murali, prompting accusations of unfair play from the Sri Lankans. It is reasonable to say that the players of Australia and Sri Lanka do not get on very well, though that does not make the Aussies exceptional. For a people who are so gentle and good-natured, the Sri Lankans grow two heads when they step on to a cricket field. England don't care much for them either, regarding their noisy players as sneaks and cry-babies.
Warne has never been a cry-baby. He took his punishment on the chin, kept in trim, and proved ready when the call came. Many people, including those closest to him, felt his greatest days were all in the past. That may yet prove to be true, but it was grand to see him enjoying one more day in the sun. He is a true star, one of the brightest in the game's history, and you can never have too many of those.
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