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| Sunday, 23 February 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Warne - the end of the road ? by Srian Obeyesekere The game of cricket has once more tasted the ugly side of controversy. It is Shane Warne, one of its greatest celebrities. The star, who emerged from Australia's sandy beaches to transform the game, who has rocked it. This time not by his wizardry with the ball but the use of a drug. Indeed, not since Canada's Ben Johnson who was stripped of his gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics for using performance enhancing drugs to win the men's 100 metres event, has the sports world been rocked by such a scandal. The deportation of Warne after testing positive to taking a weight reducing deuretic ahead of the 8th edition of the World Cup has in fact overshadowed the event itself. Warne, one of cricket's most talked of legends, who redefined spin bowling to a new art in becoming the second highest wicket taker (491) in Tests next to Courtney Walsh of the West Indies, and a record 291 one-day wickets, faces a 2-year ban if found guilty by a disciplinary committee of the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) of having taken the drug to influence his performance. Already, Warne has tested positive to the second B-sample test. Indeed, if the boy with the love for beaches and beer re-wrote the record books of cricket with the wrong 'un, flipper and fiz and bounce unmatched by no other bowler in his art, Warne's craving for a fluid cutting drug could effectively be the disgraceful exit to Australia's most celebrated of bowlers to grace the stage. Interestingly, Warne's illustrious international career which began in 1991, is said to have experienced increasing weight problems by 2000. It led to Warne, who had a taste for beer and baked beans, to reviewing his career which was threatened by overweight. So much so that the mega star consulted his colleagues as well a local wine industry which influenced Warne to reduce his thirst for beer. This resultantly saw Warne taking to wine. The dislocation of his right shoulder, first in 1998 and again early this year affected the maestros career leading to Warne losing his place in the Test team in 1999. He had to overcome the weight bug in his comeback. It again affected him during his injury lay off. This time after damaging his shoulder in a VB Triangular match against England when he dived to field a ball off his own bowling. It was during his recuperation that Warne is said to have taken the deuretic which saw a trim Warne for the World Cup. But before Australia's opening Group `A' match against Pakistan the cricket world was shattered by the news that Warne had been put on a plane back home after testing positive to taking the drug given by his mother from her medicine box which he said had nothing to do with enhancing performance. Incidentally, Warne's expulsion from the World Cup is also the first such known incident in the game's history which has blotched it. Significantly, the inquiry findings could have a bearing on the future of the game of cricket involving the use of drugs. It could be the turning point in the running of a hitherto untarnished game by such uses which has time and again tainted the athletic world. From Ben Johnson to a host of other sprinters, the most recent being Griffith, the husband of American super star, Jackie Joyner Griffith, who was disqualified at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. A ban would effectively end Warne's one-day career which the maestro had dreamed of signing off in the style of reaching 300 wickets at the ongoing World Cup in South Africa. It would have been his fourth such. And it was the colour and glamour the great had been dreaming of as he voiced was his vision after bowling Australia to its second such success at the 7th edition in England. It was the glamour the cricket world had also been looking to from the likes of Warne as he had done before. But back home from all the fizz, Warne, the beach-blond, who as a 22-year old broke the back of England when he first broke into the limelight in 1993 in a 4-1 ashes series win by Australia, could find his dreams of reaching the magical 300 one-day wickets a distant dream now. He made his debut against India in 1991, but returned figures of 1 wicket for 150 and later toured Sri Lanka in 1992 but claimed only three wickets. Born on 13th September, 1969, Shane K. Warne hailing from native Victoria in the event of a ban would still be eligible to make a comeback to the Test match arena to compete with Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan to reach the everest of Walsh's record. But it would realistically mean a long lay off which will not be helped by the weight bug which has culminated in controversy. In the event, how good this great of all time will be two years hence in bringing back the same flair that made him a super star, will be of interest to the connoisseur. |
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