Shane Warne was a compelling bowler of the modern era

The first time I watched Shane Warne bowl, he got the pasting of his life. Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar tore into the blonde, young leg-spinner on a placid Sydney track in 1992-93 with lip-smacking relish. Such bowlers were dime-a-dozen in Mumbai, and after that Test I remember Shastri telling me how easy it was to read Warne because of his lack of variety. It was obviously easier to hit him because he also lacked control.

When we met at a party in Mumbai during Australia's 2004 tour to India (Warne was attracted to glamour and glitz like a moth to a flame), I asked him what he remembered most of his first Test. "Two lessons mate,'' he had said. "Sachin was a great batsman in the making, and I was going to be forgotten unless I learnt how to bowl!''

He was not being facetious. A podgy spinner, not in control of either his girth or flight, was surely of little use in the Aussie scheme of things, even if playing his first Test.
The amazing success Warne has enjoyed since surely makes for one of the most riveting stories in sport. By 1993, he had become the golden boy of the game, and not only because of the colour of his hair.

The delivery which bowled Mike Gatting at Old Trafford — the ball pitching outside leg stump and spinning past the stupefied batsman to clip the off bail — came to be known as the Ball of The Century. By the end of the series, Warne was being hailed as the world's best leg-spinner.

There is no consensus on this, especially among players from the sub-continent. Sri Lankan Arjuna Ranatunga believes Warne's been overrated, and Muralitharan a far better spinner. The Lankan batsmen generally tackled Warne with aplomb as indeed did players like Tendulkar, Navjot Sidhu and others in India and Pakistan, so there is some merit in the argument.

Yet, Warne, I believe is the most compelling bowler, fast or slow, of the modern era; perhaps of the century. (Add `colourful and controversial’ to complete the persona.)
The sheer variety (the zooter, the flipper, the googly went with the orthodox leg-break) shows a sense of adventure as well as desire to keep improving. But his genius gets rounded by the strong-willed competitiveness that he demonstrated in every over, any match. He redefined the status of spinners in the modern game.

Cliched it may be, but what better description of Shane Warne than 'The Wizard of Oz'?