farewell to one of the greats

Warne leaves a void in the Aussie attack.

By Dave Tickner

Shane Warne's decision to quit international cricket may have been rumoured, but I still felt throughout this series that he'd be in England in 2009.

Of all the members of Dad's Army, he was the one I thought could go on after this series, the one who still looked like he could do the business consistently at this level.

But the big problem for Australia is the impending retirement of Glenn McGrath. For years Australians have been stressing the importance of not losing these two great bowlers at the same time. Now it appears certain they will.

They may have a year until they next play Test cricket, but the Aussies will do so with a desperately inexperienced bowling line-up.

Stuart Clark, a whippersnapper at just 31, will take the new ball alongside Brett Lee, but after that it gets tricky. Will Stuart MacGill get the chance to finally be Australia's number-one twirler, however briefly, or will the selectors skip a generation and give the hugely promising off-spinner Dan Cullen his chance?

And while Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson are massively exciting, they are very raw, and it would have been useful for them to have a few Tests alongside the old guard before being asked to replace 1,300-odd wickets overnight.

Lee will be the man charged with leading the attack, and for all his ability, it's a job he still doesn't look ready for as he enters his 30s. He still averages over 32 with the ball for all his pace and swing and enthusiasm.

But enough about the Aussie problems, let's just remember what a great player Warne was, and still is.

Undoubtedly the greatest spinner ever to play the game - and arguably the greatest player - he has gone beyond what anyone ever expected of him, even after that ball to Mike Gatting in 1993. While many wondered how it was physically possible to spin the ball the width of Gatting, Graham Gooch observed that the Middlesex batsman looked "like someone had nicked his lunch".

It was a ball that launched Warne into the big time, and he has stayed there ever since. He has perfected all the leg-spinner's weapons, even the googly he modestly claimed not to be to good at.

But Warne's two strengths have always been the big-spinning leg-break, and a bewildering array of balls that go straight on. The flipper, the slider, the zooter, the top-spinner. Countless Test cricketers have got themselves in such a tizz about Warne's spin they eventually get out meekly to one of the straight ones.

But Warne is about more than just bowling skill. When Warne bowls, it's theatre. Even if a batsman saunters down the ground and smashes the ball over the sightscreen, Warne looks as if he almost got him.

Every Warne appeal is delivered in surround sound, and followed by a look of genuine disbelief if the man in white has the temerity to keep his finger in his pocket.

The only bowler in the history of the game who is even close to Warne is Muttiah Muralitharan, but the Sri Lankan's successes are inevitably overshadowed by a bowling action that many cricket followers are still uneasy with.

While Warne has had the odd run-in with mobile phones and diet pills, there have never been any question marks over his bowling.

When Warne takes his 700th wicket sometime in his final Melbourne Test, he will achieve something that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, and will confirm his place not just as a cricketing great but a sporting one too.