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Why Australia should reject Warne |
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Pitched By Patrice Lopez
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Wednesday, 01 October 2008 |
IF Jeff Fenech and The Pixies can do it, it shouldn’t come as a shock that Shane Warne is planning a comeback. Still, hearing the news that Warnie wants to play Test cricket again is a little like
being told the ex who dumped you fancies giving it another go: it’s exciting at first and you know there’ll be good times ahead, but the potential for heartbreak is huge.
If Stuart MacGill “falls over and breaks his leg” in a year’s time, the greatest bowler this country has produced is prepared to revive the Test career that apparently ended on a note nearing perfection against England at the SCG on January 5, 2007. But just for one series, against England for the 2009 Ashes.
Warne doesn’t need the money. Nor is his legacy missing anything. In fact, his reputation stands to lose more than it could gain. Warne has already achieved the extraordinary. It’s possible he could outdo himself yet again, but it’s also possible he could return a pale imitation, a parody, of the great Test cricketer he was. Even something slightly less than excellent would be a let-down. Sport is littered with examples of the once-mighty who go to the well one more time only to drown in their own avarice. For every Michael Jordan story of triumph, there are tales of Joe Bugner, Martina Hingis, Fraser Gehrig and Might And Power that highlight the dangers of revisiting the past.
Warne has hardly been inactive in his ‘retirement’, it must be noted. He’s spent another season captaining Hampshire and more recently has been rolling his arm over in reassuringly impressive fashion for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. But a return to the rigours of Test cricket, having supposedly said his final goodbye to the baggy green, would count as a shock comeback. Warne will be pushing 40 when Australia’s Ashes squad ventures to England. The fact he wants to play a one-off series when most cricketers are long retired is telling of his passion for Ashes cricket, and more so his very personal interest in keeping the old enemy under the cosh.
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