 Shane Warne basking in IPL success
21st May 2008 23:03 IST
Manish Kumar
There was a time when Shane Warne used to hate Indian food and found the Hindi language incomprehensible and now he says he loves India and its culture and calls Jaipur his second home.
But the change has not happened overnight. The greatest leg-spinner of all time has been coming to India for the last 11 years, but it is only now, while captaining the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, that Warne has submerged himself in Indian culture.
And not just that, Warne has turned the Indian Premier League on its head by leading the most under-rated team of the IPL to the semi-finals even though the only non-Indian captain in the IPL, to his disposal in the Rajasthan Royals team had raw Indian youngsters with limited communication skills.
Warne had failed to attract a bid over his reserve price at the player auction and was bought by the cheapest franchise, the Rajasthan Royals as many had thought he was well past his prime approaching his 39th birthday.
After all, Twenty20 is touted as a game suited to youngsters, not old men, a game where anything less than the best spin bowling is chopped up like dog meat.
But Warne took all this in his stride and went to Rajasthan Royals not only as captain but also as coach.
continued.. |
