Settling personal scores

Don’t go by the title. This book is not about Shane Warne’s list of the top 100 cricketers he played with or against. Actually, while that is the purported theme, this book is about Shane Warne. It is the retired Australian leg spinner’s method of choice to provide the world with a window into his mind. Sure enough, a peek throws up many twists and slants.

The book is a follow-on to Warne’s list of the best 50 of his contemporary cricketers published last year by the UK newspaper, The Times. The publication of the list created a furore and engendered just what Warne may have been hoping for: Endless arguments. It was also seen as Warne’s way to settle scores with rivals, in other teams as well as his own.

The book indicates that Warne may have mellowed somewhat since the publication of the Top 50. For one, the book gives Warne space to explain some of his selections, such as, why Sachin Tendulkar is ranked the best, just above Brian Lara. Some of the positions have changed; a few guys who were in the Top 50 in The Times have fallen out of it, though they remain in the top 100.

The book contains 100 names, allowing twice as much room to placate. That has made Warne appear to rise above petty squabbles. Arjuna Ranatunga, with who Warne (and the rest of the Australian cricketers) had a protracted spat, comes in at 93. It is another matter that Ranatunga may have preferred not to be in this book, not the least because Warne describes his appearance thus: “…he looked as though he’d swallowed a sheep.” Ironically, Warne himself was never the Svelte Shane; he took drugs to slim down and got banned for a year when caught.

Ranatunga was one of the two captains who dented the pride and dominance of Australia during Warne’s playing days. The other was Sourav Ganguly, who, like Ranatunga, got under the skin of the Australians. He comes three places behind the Sri Lankan at 96. Warne wades into this opportunity to pen one of the few pieces of cricket literature that pooh-pooh Ganguly as captain and player. While the world never stopped clapping at Ganguly’s languid off-side play, Warne says, condescendingly: “After a while, I had to half-acknowledge that nobody could be so streaky so often and that he actually had skill.” Ganguly’s captaincy, according to Warne, was tactically not very good and his man management left a bit to be desired.

Both the entries serve a crucial purpose for Warne, whose Top 50 was criticised for consisting of his mates. The downgrades in the book include some of his Victorian teammates, though Merv Hughes is firmly ensconced at 18, ahead of Waqar Younis (at 31), Allan Donald (36), and Kapil Dev (43).

Yet, perhaps the most inexplicable rating of all is that of Warne’s own captain, Steve Waugh, at 26. The elder of the Waugh twins (the younger, Mark, is at nine) was in his time regarded as the grittiest of all batsmen — the man for a crisis, who made sure his team was not out of the game so long as he was out in the middle. Steve Waugh’s batting was the difference between the teams when Australia became the best Test team by beating West Indies in the Caribbean in the mid-1990s. Waugh’s captaincy took Australia to a new level and redefined Test cricket by scoring runs quickly enough to put the draw out of the equation. Yet, Warne’s praise for his captains is limited to the first two he played under: Alan Border (ranked 4) and Mark Taylor (12). It must be a coincidence that Waugh’s ascent to captaincy ended Warne’s chances and the two were never best friends.

But, as Warne says at one place, it’s his book after all. It also reads like a dictation.

SHANE WARNE’S CENTURY
MY TOP 100 TEST CRICKETERS

Shane Warne
Mainstream Publishing
320 pages; Rs 525