The colourful life of Shane Warner

SHANE Warne had the knack of hitting the headlines, on and off the field. While he dazzled and shocked followers of the game with his sublime skills, he couldn’t keep himself away from controversies. Clashes with his contemporary cricketers, a string of affairs, consuming banned substances, dealing with a bookie, denying evolution theory among others made him controversy’s favourite child. Promiscuous and with a habit of living on the edge, but magical on the field – the spin bowling legend had a lot in common with soccer stars George Best and Diego Maradona in the way they approached life.

Here’s a look at the top controversial moments from the legendary spinner’s life:

Sex, drugs and pure genius: Why Warne was cricket’s Maradona and Best rolled into one

During the Packer series, ‘big boys played at night’, both on and off the field. Shane Warne was a post-Packer generation cricketer who carried forward the legacy of the Imrans, the Bothams and the Vivs.

If Imran Khan reportedly had Sita White and Goldie Hawn, and Ian Botham had Lindy Field, Warne allegedly had nine sexcapades. Three years ago, The Daily Mail reported that the Spin King, 49 at the time, allegedly had a “noisy four-way sex party with his lover and two escorts” at his Maida Vale home in London.

Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Warne’s family will be offered a state funeral for him.

On the field, Warne was the ‘Wizard of Oz’, foxing the batsmen for fun, which Mike Gatting would attest. Off it, he was colourful enough to match some of the biggest football stars. Warne was actually cricket’s George Best and Diego Maradona rolled into one.

Grapevine has it that Best once bedded eight women in a day. He was the ‘fifth Beatle’. “If I had been born ugly, you would have never heard of Pele,” Best had famously said. Once, doctors told him never to touch alcohol again. His first port of call upon coming out of the medical consultation was a nearby pub.

Warne was Mr Hollywood, uninhibited enough to say: “I drank a bit, I smoked a bit and I bowled leg-spin.”

In 1974, Best made a controversial exit from Manchester United, then first-team manager Tommy Docherty dismissing the legendary footballer from the dressing-room for allegedly turning up drunk for an FA Cup game against Plymouth.

Maradona was thrown out of the 1994 World Cup after testing positive for using the banned drug ephedrine. Warne was expelled from the 2003 World Cup after failing a dope test.

Best and Maradona used their feet like a magic wand. Warne weaved his magic through his fingers and wrist. Like Maradona, he also broke down after being banned from playing in the World Cup. Like the Argentine master, he also maintained that he never took any steroids.

“Cricket Australia made the decision to send me home, so I have to address the team, which was really hard because as I said I’m anti-drugs. I don’t do them, never touched them,” he had said in an interview with Fox Sports, adding: “Apologising to them just on the eve of the World Cup was I felt so bad to unsettle their groove because we were all on the journey to try and win that World Cup. I broke down in front of the team. It was tough.”

Last Friday, greatness and showmanship died young. When the cricket world would fall for John Buchanan’s new-age coaching methods, with Australia on a golden run, Warne would comfortably call the former coach “verbal diarrhoea”.

“I disagree with John Buchanan all the time. I don’t think he has made one good point in a long time, actually. Everything that I have read that he says, he is living in pixieland. It just shows what us players had to put up with. We had to listen to his verbal diarrhoea all the time. He is just a goose and has no idea and lacks common sense, and you can put all that in there,” he told the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Sharing information with a bookie: Warne, during Australia’s 1994 tour of Sri Lanka, along with his teammate Mark Waugh was found guilty of accepting money in lie of exchanging pitch and weather report with a bookie before the start of a match.

Consuming banned substance: This one was a shocker. Just a day before the start of the 2003 ODI World Cup, Warne’s drug test conducted during an ODI series in Australia came positive. He was sent home from South Africa, the host of the world cup. He though claimed the he took a prescription drug terming it “fluid tablet” which was allegedly given to him by his mother to improve his appearance. Warne was found guilty of breaching drug code and was banned for a year by Cricket Australia.

Dirty talk scandal: Warne was stripped of Australia’s vice-captaincy in 2000 after reports of him sending constant messages to a British woman surfaced. He admitted to have indulged in ‘dirty talk’ with the woman despite being married at that time.

Breaching contract: Warne, landed a lucrative contract with Nicorette (a nicotine replacement company) which required him to stay away from smoking. However, during the New Zealand tour of 2008, he was photographed smoking by few boys that resulted in an altercation.

Affairs and divorce: Warne was married to Simone Callahan between 1995 and 2005. He has three children with Callahan. They were reported to be getting back together in 2007 but Callahan returned to England after Warne mistakenly sent her a text which was meant for another woman. In 2005, he reportedly invited a British woman to join him in a foursome. Warne also dated actress Liz Hurley who dumped him after the cricket was found to be having an affair with another woman.

Jibes at Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting: Warne infamously didn’t get along with the legendary Steve Waugh and in 2016, called the former captain as the most selfish player he played with. Warne took a shot at another former Australia captain Ricky Ponting for his criticism of Michael Clarke in his autobiography.

Denying evolution: On the reality show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, Warne raised questions over the Evolution Theory saying that if humans have evolved from monkeys “then why haven’t those ones (monkeys today) evolved?”

“If we’ve evolved from monkeys, then why haven’t those ones evolved?” Warne asked his fellow contestant. “Because, I’m saying, aliens. We started from aliens. Look at those pyramids… You couldn’t do them. You couldn’t pull those ropes, huge bits of brick and make it perfectly symmetrical. Couldn’t do it. So who did it?”t

Warner’s burial

Warne will be honoured with a state funeral at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the evening of March 30, the Victorian state government said Wednesday.

Warne died at the age of 52 on the Thai holiday island of Koh Samui last Friday. His body is to be repatriated.

Warne’s death was from natural causes, police said. A senior Thai police official said the post mortem exam showed no signs of foul play in Warner’s death. Police say Warne’s body will be flown to Australia on Tuesday. Warne helped Australia win the 1999 50-over World Cup.

In 2000, he was named one of the five Wisden cricketers of the century, alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir Viv Richards.

He retired from international cricket in 2007, going on to a career as a commentator, pundit and coach.  Indianexpress.com/news18.com