Its true after all. Its gonna happen. The conjecture turned out to be correct. In Sydney early next year, the greatest leg spinner that ever played this beautiful game is going to walk into the sunset, once and for all. At first, the news refuses to sink in. What? Shane Keith Warne? Retire? Why for all you know, he could have gone on and on for ages. Hell he survived major operations on his spinning finger and his bowling shoulder, he survived 1 year in the wilderness after being banned for consuming a diuretic, he survived the endless media glare on his topsy-turvy private life. For a man who achieved yet another peak at the age of 36 (40 wickets in the last Ashes), you can be forgiven for thinking that he wouldn't have let Father Time bother him too much.
Its not that there weren't other great bowlers in his time. There were great fast bowlers. Wasim Akram, Curtley Ambrose, Glenn McGrath, Waqar Younis, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock. And then, there are his fellow spinners, Mutthiah Muralitharan and Anil Kumble. But its Warne who towers above them all. For Warne was much more than a classic leg-spin bowler. For 15 years, he showcased his art for the benefit of us all. And we watched spellbound.
But now the time has come to bid goodbye. Rise one. Rise all. Lets salute the second best cricketer that Australia has ever produced. There'll never be another approach to the crease as pregnant with possibilities. You'll never hear the fizz the ball made when it left his fingers. There'll never be a better Ball of the Century. (both right hander's as well as left handers's). Take a bow, Mike Gatting and Andrew Strauss. You helped create history. And take a bow, Shane Keith Warne. For there'll never be another like you. Never ever.
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