Shane Keith Warne: 1969-2022

Brut India

Shane Warne, rest in peace, you beauty! . . .  This is one of the greatest bowlers of all time speaking back in 2008 about his Test retirement and his experience playing in India.

Transcript

00:00I'm fit enough, probably fitter than I've ever been at the moment, as in running around

00:06the block. But bowling, I haven't bowled a ball since, I bowled three balls up in Brisbane

00:11the other day after the IPL, so what's that, three or four months or something? Landed

00:16them okay. But look, at the moment I'm happily retired. The Australian side's been playing

00:23well, they've played well in the West Indies, they don't need me at the moment and hopefully

00:27they don't.

00:28It's pretty tough in India, isn't it?

00:30Yeah, it is tough. I've had it tough. The thing is, with a spinner in India, the Indian

00:35players in the mid-90s when you had Sidhu and Azharuddin and a few other guys, Tendulkar

00:41at his best, Dravid at his best, and a bit later, they were unbelievable players of spin.

00:47I found it difficult and I like to think I was one of the better spin bowlers going around.

00:51And it was really tough. I think it's different now. It took me a couple of tours to India

00:56to work out how to bowl in India. And the last tour I bowled, I think I got 14 or 15

01:02wickets in three games and then missed an absolute raging turn at the last one where

01:06Michael Clarke got six for nine. So I like to think I might have got a couple of wickets

01:10in that last one, which might have, you know, I might have got 20 or more wickets in a series.

01:15Which means you can bowl to the Indians, but if you don't bowl well, they can smash you

01:20all over the park. But it's a little bit different now. There's a lot of those guys coming to

01:23the end of their careers. They're not as confident. They're not prepared to hit you

01:27out of the attack in case they get out. So it's a little bit different mindset now to

01:31what it used to be. But they're still the best players of spin in the world. And especially

01:36in India, it's always tough. It's just, it's completely different to anything you'll experience.

01:41And for me, when I went over in the Australian side, why it took us a couple of tours to

01:45win was we didn't understand how to play there. And we got close the first time. We got really

01:51close the second time, except for an unbelievable partnership between Laxman and Dharavid.

01:56And then the third time we went there, we won. So sometimes it takes a little bit of

02:01time to understand those conditions. It is completely different. But as far as I'm concerned,

02:06I'm happy where I am at the moment.

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