Shane

It is hard to imagine Shane Warne as anything other than a master of leg spin. The image of him waiting to bowl, ball spinning between hands, before his walk to the crease is immovable from my cricketing memories.

However, his route to 708 test wickets tells us much about how success is rarely straightforward. There was no even trajectory in Warne’s rise and it seems he was all the better for this.

Watching the documentary film ‘Shane’, it is made clear that cricket found him rather than it being his first choice. Indeed, many will already know that Warne’s first love was Aussie Rules. His obsession with the sport was at the expense of all else. His ambition being to play for St Kilda in the AFL. However, this was not to be.

He states himself that he wasn’t good enough. This must have been hard to take when he had dedicated so much of his life to it. The rejection led him to consider other paths, tennis being one, before cricket emerged as an option.

It is tempting to then fast forward to when he is front and centre in the dominant Australian test teams of the 1990s and 2000s. The reflections of Warne and others on this are, of course, fascinating but the most important passage is around when he starts in test cricket.

Facing India in January 1992 was a difficult start. He reels off the emotions that came up. Nervous, intimidated, scared. There was a return of the judgement of not being good enough. The difference being that at St Kilda it was them telling him, here he was saying it to himself.

Cricket, as life itself, can be lonely when things aren’t going well. This led Shane to make a wise decision and seek the help of Terry Jenner, the former Australian international leggie.

“He got me, he understood me”

From that basis the two worked together to craft Warne’s deliveries, tactics and strategy. It wasn’t as easy as he made it look but, as Ian Chappell, said he was smart enough to listen to Jenner and got the benefit of his perspective.

Success was not too far away with the ‘ball of the century’ to Mike Gatting in 1993 and seemingly endless team and personal accolades to follow. The process was still never predictable though. Like us all, he made mistakes. All of his in the public domain though. This makes the story all the more engaging as it goes along.

The film shows us an AFL wannabe who became one of the greatest ever at his second choice sport. What it shows us most importantly, in my view, is that nervous, doubting side we all have. The resilience he found through asking for help and growing to love the game can teach anyone a useful lesson.

SHANE is available on demand on digital platforms in the UK now – Dogwoof On Demand, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple TV / iTunes, Microsoft Store, Rakuten TV, Sky Store and YouTube, followed by the DVD and Blu-ray release on Monday 7th February. Further details can be found at https://dogwoof.com/shane