England got absolutely crucified and we should do the same to them during their whole stay here to see how they cope. I will not start sledging - who am I to start abusing those blokes after everything they have achieved? We are here to play hard cricket, but we will not be bullied."Gillespie gave Australia a slight injury scare yesterday when he missed nets training with a sore right knee. Australian officials were confident, though, that he will be around to trouble England at Lord's.. A book could be written about Shane Warne's first ball in Ashes cricket. Famously, it was the ball of the century, an absolute fizzer delivered with a rip of the fingers and snap of the wrist that sent the ball burning through the air and made it curl to leg before bouncing and turning prodigiously past the bat of a flummoxed opponent Good morning, Mr Gatting Good morning, England My name is Warne and I bowl leg-spin. Ever since, English batsmen have been tormented by this artful, supremely gifted, dedicated practitioner of the game's most difficult and rewarding skill.
Throughout he has been an extraordinary mixture: a darkness capable of creating light; a rascal who can fool a professional with a flipper (as he did Richie Richardson in Melbourne and Alec Stewart in Brisbane); a larrikin who can make the wise look foolish and the seasoned seem like novices. The surprising thing is that none of his victims has clocked him. And it was all seen in that first, deadliest delivery. It was much more than a wicket-taker, much more than a statement of intent. It was a warning of a formidable cricketing power about to be let loose upon the game. A career was predicted in a moment, a life foretold in an instant. Here was a beach bum performing wonders, an innocent casting a spell Warne had joined the immortals. Since then, he has been beyond containment, not least by himself.Would you have it otherwise? Must not a man be taken as a whole? Of course he is a rogue, but he is not coming to tea Nor is there any need to take everything he says literally.
Has it not been proved often enough? Do you yearn for an off-break dispatched by a civil servant?Another, more respectable, man could not have dared as much, a career upon the pitch of a ball, and against the flow of the times. The West Indies were the reigning champions on that day in Manchester when this prize chump lobbed down his first Ashes delivery Dennis Lillee was the local hero.Warne ignored all of that. Instead, he changed the game until it fitted his requirements. You have to be good to do that; very, very good.Imagine the nerve involved in sending down that delivery! Was it not a time to settle for something safe? He was not bowling on a sunny afternoon to an unknown in a park match with only his loyal mother in attendance. His antagonist was not some fearful youth lately summoned by a sorely stretched selection committee but Mike Gatting, regarded as his country's leading player of spin Nor did the novice have much of a record.
