The International Cricket Thread

[paul_e]

Awful news, one of the best sportsmen of all-time and, like so many great talents, he's gone far too soon.

[Meanwood Villa]

Greatest player of my lifetime for sure. Second only to Bradman in history?

This might be the passage of time but I can't recall ever hating him. Being terrified of him yes but not hatred. Maybe I need to find my posts from pre 2005 Ashes to refute this.

[Villan For Life]

Greatest player of my lifetime for sure. Second only to Bradman in history?

This might be the passage of time but I can't recall ever hating him. Being terrified of him yes but not hatred. Maybe I need to find my posts from pre 2005 Ashes to refute this.

I know what you mean, in Cricket I find that the greats of the game transcend national rivalries. I never hated the great Aussie players such as Warne, Gilchrist & McGrath, I admired them as world class players that I was privileged to see.

My love of Cricket was ignited by the great West Indian teams of the 70’s and 80’s and their world class players such as Sir Viv were heroes of mine.

[Behind Bluenose Lines]

That's terribly sad, particularly for his family. Terrific player!

[PaulWinch again]

I only saw him play live once and it was on the day of a rare, and, epic England win in the Ashes. 1997 the Saturday at the Oval. What an unbelievable player, gone far too soon.

[saint13]

I rarely go to watch cricket live but I was lucky enough to go to the 1999 WC semi final at Edgbaston between AUS & SA, (the one with the ridiculous run out). It was a brilliant match that ebbed & flowed all day.  Warne played his part in a terrific match that will live long in the memory.

[tomd2103]

Really shocking and tragic news about Shane Warne.  Being an England fan, he should have been enemy number one, but he was such a talent, it was just a pleasure to watch him play.


A brilliant, brilliant bowler, good slip fielder and handy enough in the lower order with the bat.  Had his problems, but always seemed a good sport.  I remember being at Edgbaston on the first day of the 2nd Ashes test in 2005.  He went for over 100 runs that day and was in the slips when the scoreboard updated to show he had conceded 100 runs.  A big cheer went up.and you could see him and a few others looking round to see what the cheer was about.  When he realised, he took his sun hat off and doffed it to all four sides of the ground.  He bowled brilliantly in a losing cause in that series and think it showed what a competitor he was.

RIP Shane. A true icon who changed the game.

[JD]

A player who transcended national rivalries, a special talent the like of which we are unlikely to see again. At times he seemed to pick up wickets because of his reputation, he was in the batsman’s head before they’d faced a ball and by that point the batsman was halfway out already.

Totally agree. The number of players who would freeze when Warne came on to bowl. Him and McGrath were absolutely unplayable on their day, the best spin and fast bowlers in the world in their time together. I loved watching them play, even though they were Aussies. 

[Axl Rose]

Very sad news. Far too young

[tony scott]

Very sad news, and an absolutely fantastic leg spinner I never thought I would say that about an Aussie cricketer, great larger than life character which makes his passing such as chock RIP Shane

[Monty]

Honestly it's taken me the best part of 24 hours to process. I know that sounds a bit pathetic when talking about someone you don't know personally, but there we are. Warne exemplified something hard to define that I loved about the world, and it was weird to wake up in a world where he wasn't.

[olaftab]

Honestly it's taken me the best part of 24 hours to process. I know that sounds a bit pathetic when talking about someone you don't know personally, but there we are. Warne exemplified something hard to define that I loved about the world, and it was weird to wake up in a world where he wasn't.

Yes indeed. Well said Monty.

[olaftab]

Aussies have lost two brilliant former Cricketers this week. Marsh and Warne but it’s Warne passing that’s truly shocking. I wanted him around for many more years. A wonderful sportsman right up there with the very best like Jessie Owens, Ali, Pele, Maradona, Wood, Borg etc etc. And it appears from everything that we have heard a decent human being. RIP Shane.

[TopDeck113]

Agree with so many of the above comments. In an era of over-used superlatives,  he was a genuine great and all-time legend of the game.  I feel privileged to have seen him play and probably my greatest non-football supporting regret is that a promised ticket to what transpired to be the "Ball of the Century" day's play didn't materialise. The fact that the person who made the promise took me to the New Zealand Old Trafford Test twelve months later probably doesn't compensate...

[Steve67]

Seemed a real character but always seemed to respect classy opponents and didn't mind passing on the tricks of his trade.  A world class cricketer is lost, also now, a great commentator.