Just over 30 years ago, the Shane Warne Stand sprung up from a hole in the ground. And over that very same period, Warne did too
Thirty-two summers ago, half the MCG was a hole in the ground. The gulf was commensurate with Australia’s search for a leg-spinner of top quality, more or less unrequited since the retirement of Richie Benaud in 1964.
“No one has ever been bowled more times in one net session,” Damien Fleming recalls. “Richard McCarthy and Denis Hickey are just knocking him over repeatedly, and that makes noise when the ball hits the stumps. John Chambers, our chairman of selectors, was standing behind him. He looked a bit like WC Fields and had a real chortle as a laugh, and ‘Warnie’ was getting bowled that much.
The old Southern Stand and its Bay 13 had been ceremoniously demolished with the help of Sir Richard Hadlee in late 1990, in a nod to his treatment by spectators in that very bay. By the time of the 1991-92 season, the new stand and its amphitheatre effect on the MCG were closing in on completion. Warne, like the Great Southern Stand, was getting it all together. The Victorians listened intently to his 7-52 against the West Indies on radio from Shield training in Hobart.
“And from my point of view as a teammate, he would just give you everything. There were times when we were both on and feeling a million dollars where it would have been fun to watch. Especially on some of the wearing training wickets and the ball’s spinning past the bat every two balls.” Warne had already made a few waves that summer. He encircled Western Australia at the MCG, plucking 6-42 while flummoxing players as good as Tom Moody and Damien Martyn. Then he rumbled through New Zealand in Hobart and Brisbane, scooping 17 wickets in consecutive Tests.
“He’s just dominating this full-on NSW attack, apart from Mark Waugh. Two unbelievably gifted cricketers at their peak and the other 20 players just along for the ride really. Genius taking on genius,” Fleming says. “The umpires offered the light to Glenn McGrath and they took it,” Howard says. “I just remember how much it hurt him. I’m pretty sure a glass fridge might’ve copped it when he came into the rooms. He’d built it up against his mates in the Aussie team and that sort of stuff. He was absolutely sapped of all will and competitiveness and so frustrated he couldn’t win a game for Victoria. That said everything about him.
“The coach at the time, because it was home umpires at that stage, said ‘make sure you tell them the balls before were no-balls as well’. So I think I did a TV interview where I told them that.”
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