Harry from Hampshire gave me this after a game of Badminton in the New Year. I enjoyed it. Perhaps it was just the vernacular buzzing about the planet in the 1990s, but with Y2K coming up, in the film Basic Instinct you had the ‘F*** of the Century’ and in 1993, during an Ashes Summer, we were treated to the ‘Ball of the Century’. I was doing my A levels, and on a break from attempting to revise GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs) sneaked off to the TV Room and watched a far more interesting Gatt – bewitched, bothered and bewildered was he.
Warney and Mark Nicholas by all accounts sat down over a few dozen Brewskis and managed to pound out the Bio. From Hurley to Poker to the Art of Leg Spin, it’s all covered. You have to admire the man. He is a born bluffer. Perhaps when you’re totally self-made, you’re less cautious. Maybe, maybe not. But 708 Test Wickets. That is something.
The chapter on the first season of IPL in 2008 is fascinating. The man sticks to his guns. It’s possible that not making it as a professional Aussie Rules Footballer made him all the more driven. He seems to have a knack for creating a story, whether good or bad, and that is perhaps why the Press hound him. I emailed Harry from Hampshire to say that I was enjoying the read, he replied, “Yeah, what about the threesome followed by a 7-for against Middlesex”. It’s true, the man is larger than life, and whilst he and ‘Pidge’ (McGrath) made me have to dig deep in the 90s as an English cricket fan, the sport owes him a doff of the cap. Sir Shane?