Warne tickles funny bone, gives his spin on greats
Posted on Dec 03, 2008 at 15:29 | Updated Dec 03, 2008 at 19:14
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Melbourne: Legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne has drawn interesting profiles of the world's leading international cricketers in his just released book.
Sample this: "Inzamam was a huge great bear of a man who looked as though he was batting with a toothpick. The stumps always seemed very small when he was at the crease - that's if you could see any of them behind his frame."
Warne's imagination, however, was followed by a lot of praise for the former Pakistani captain whom he perceived as a genial personality.
"Anybody underestimating him at first sight soon realised that his appearance was really deceptive. He was one of the most identifiable batsmen in the world, but he was comfortable in his big-boned frame.
"He was really a good slip fielder, probably he didn't fancy patrolling the covers for too long. But when he did, he had a rocket arm.
"Away from the game, he comes across as being very relaxed and just as easy-going. He even speaks slowly, but he is good fun to be around and is the sort of guy who can make you laugh," Warnie wrote in 'Shane Warne's Century'.
Taylor: Good captain with horrendous shirts
With his funny bone active, Warne did not even spare his former captains Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh and was brutally honest in penning his views on them.
"There was nothing fancy about Mark Taylor. He had wonderful leadership skills and excellent communication, but his main weakness was his terrible dress sense - the shirts he used to wear were horrendous, although Steve Waugh's were worse."
Merv Huges was another Aussie who could not escape Warne's minute observations.
"The image I will take most from the 1993 Ashes is not Mike Gatting's puzzled face at the Old Trafford, but of Huges sitting in the dressing room at the Oval after the last Test, staring out like a zombie and covered in ice packs to keep down the swelling after his last input in the memorable series...
"He had ice on both knees and on his shoulders, groin and back... If we had been called out to take a couple of more wickets, Huges would have been the first through the door of the dressing-room. For (captain) Allan Border, he was a dream."
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