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Shane Warne's advertisement: The sheikh of tweak

Shane Warne's advertisement: The sheikh of tweak

'It was said of Augustus that he found Rome brick and left it marble: the same is true of Warne and spin bowling.' Australian journalist Gideon Haigh, 2007.

Shane Keith Warne debuted for Australia in 1992 and played 145 Tests and 194 One-Day Internationals before retiring from the national team in 2007.

A daytime colour photograph of two male cricketers. Both wear white cricket clothes. The cricketer closest to the camera is a batsman. He wears batting pads and a batting helmet with a protective grill in front of his face. He holds his bat at about knee height and has his left leg ahead of his right leg. Behind him are the stumps. One of the stumps has been caught flying through the air, above the batsman's head. Behind the stumps is the wicketkeeper, wearing a baggy green cap. He is seen jumping into the air with his arms outstretched and his gloves up at his head height. His expression is one of delight in regard to the apparent dismissal of the batsman. In the background, out of focus, is some of the crowd watching the match.


Warne is a right-arm spin bowler, renowned for his accuracy, variety and extraordinary ability to turn the ball. Warne — dubbed 'The Sheikh of Tweak' — became Australia's highest-ever wicket-taker and is the first player to take 700 Test wickets.

Warne is a cricketing icon in Australia and overseas. He served as captain of the Hampshire team in the English country cricket competition from 2005 to 2007, and in 2008 led the Rajasthan Royals to victory in the first ever Indian Premier League final.

 pdf Shane Warne player statistics (PDF 1363kb)


Left: English captain Mike Gatting is bowled by Shane Warne in the 1993 Ashes series. Many cricket commentators have rated this furiously spun delivery as the 'ball of the century'. Courtesy: Steve Lindsell, Getty Images.


A colour photograph of 16 cricketers running on a cricket field. The players all wear blue shirts and either blue shorts or tracksuit pants. Some of them wear blue caps. Two of them wear dark skin-tight leggings under their shorts. The cricketers run in a more or less line abreast group. All of them except the cricketer in the middle of the group are dark-skinned. The middle cricketer is fair-haired and has lighter coloured skin. In the background, beyond the cricket field fence, is what appears to be a large stage, with lights and a large red and yellow backdrop. In the centre of the backdrop is a blue oval sign ringed with lights. The text on the sign reads 'Rajasthan Royals'.


Left: Warne, as captain and coach, leads the Rajasthan Royals onto the field in the Indian Premier League in 2008. The team includes a number of international players, including Warne's former arch rival, South African Graeme Smith. Courtesy: Cricket.com.


A colour photograph of the front page of a newspaper. The top left corner of the paper has a red rectangle in which is printed 'Daily Mirror'. There is a photograph of a blond woman in the top half of the page. At the bottom of the photo is the headline 'Carol's Grief'. At the left of the woman's image is a smaller photo of a man standing on the top deck of a red London double-decker bus. Above him is printed 'All A-Gord! Chancellor joins Mirror's magical Live 8 bus tour'. In the bottom half of the page are the images of a man and a woman. The large headline in this half is 'Shane's At It Again'. The bottom left corner of the page has a black rectangle in which is printed 'Cheat Aussie star's two-month affair'. To the right of the black rectangle is a block of text with the heading 'Exclusive'.



Left: In the age of televised sport and star endorsements, Shane Warne has become a popular celebrity as well as a cricketing icon. At times, his private life has attracted as much attention as his accomplishments on the field. Courtesy: Daily Mirror.


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