Shane Warne‘s announcement of his retirement from the game has seen cricket writers employ every adjective known to man and beast to describe the beauty of his bowling. And Nirmal Shekar in The Hindu takes the cake and the bakery by talking of Mozart, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Yeti in the same breath as the Sheikh of Tweak. Read the full piece.
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Shane Warne has “a brain in which the neurons fired away as in a hungry cheetah’s on a dinner run behind a springbuck.”
“There may be quite a few instances of such awe-inspiring tango featuring the human hand and an inanimate object in life itself Van Gogh and the paint-brush, Pandit Ravi Shankar and the strings of a sitar …”
“Warne virtually redefined the game at a time when world class leg-spinners were about as easy to find in cricket as the Yeti in the Himalayas”
“A raging cyclone of energy”
“To judge the Aussie genius on the basis of such numbers would be as big a folly as attempting to determine Mozart‘s place in the history of western classical music on the basis of the number of symphonies he wrote.”
IJR 
Who said, “The ball of the century turns a yard more with every retelling.”?
I’m just wondering what the scene would be when Sachin Tendulkar announces his retirement….
Im not sure of whether Shane Keith Warne will take his 700th wicket but when he had took his 600th wicket, Shane was wearing jersey no 23 which was also the lucky number of Micheal Trescothick. Unfortunately it didn’t Trescothick helped him to stick to the crease.
Shobha, judging from your question, you are a Mumbaikar, right? Then wake up. You are not going to see so many adjectives as have greeted Warne’s retirement—at least not across the world. The reason is simple: Warne has quit at a time when he is still grabbing wickets by the bucketful. Tendulkar, on the other hand, is well past his prime. In fact, he is just prolonging a career. Moreover, Warne is a global phenomenon. There is nobody else like him. On the other hand, when you talk of Sachin, you have to consider his contemporaries like Lara, Inzamam, Ponting and Youhana and, sorry to say this my friend, they are all far better batsmen than the Bandra Bomber. They win matches; all our man wins are endorsement contracts.
Aatmasakshi: Well, I am quite surprised that you think my innocuous comment reeks of parochialism. That’s definitely not the idea. My comment about Sachin tendulkar has got nothing to do with me being a Mumbaikar. (Come to think of it, he is not even my favourite player, but that’s besides the point)
I completely agree with you when you say Sachin Tendulkar is way past his prime and is just prolonging his career. However, one cannot deny the fact that he was nothing short of a phenomenon at one point of time. If I am not wrong, couple of years back, a Mumbai-based tabloid had all articles on Sachin Tendulkar on his birthday. I wonder if any other cricketer enjoyed such a status. In India, he is nothingshort of a demi god. That’s why, I personally feel that Indian media will surely glorify him and his past achievements once he announces his retirement irrespective of whether he wins matches now or not. It’s a sad fact.
Tabloid with all articles on Sachin?
Who can ever beat Outlook’s special edition when Sachin turned 25?
Like they say form is temporary, class is permanent, Tendulkar will always be Tendulkar and Gavaskar will always be Gavaskar, Legends are made of steel, they are never forgotten, Never!