Written by Few people can claim the title of ‘legend’ in their own lifetime, but Shane Warne was such a robust mix of cricketing knowledge and skill, and Aussie larrikin, as to be able to quite easily be considered iconic.
Born in September 1969, Shane Warne was only 52 when he died of a suspected heart attack on Friday March 4 in Ko Samui, Thailand. He lived a large, gregarious life and didn’t believe in shying from the limelight. He says in his autobiography:
“Kerry Packer once told me, ‘Sell the blue Ferrari son, and lie low for a little while,’ so I did as I was told, and bought a silver one.”
Warne was known as one of the most effective bowlers in cricket history, with good disguise on his top-spinner and fine control on two or three different googlies. Credited with reviving the ‘legspin’, Warne was an artist, a creative and intelligent player with a potent tactical brain, he became synonymous with Australian cricket, a true icon.
Though its roots are in British imperialism, cricket as it is today in Australia has been adapted into cultural mythology. Entertainment and recreation became secondary to comradery and ‘mateship’ and the game is quite often held up as testament to what it means to be Australian and a believer of a ‘fair go’. Despite the claims that sport unifies people from different demographics and cultural origins, few sports actually do. Elitism is rife in most of them as many ‘outprice’ themselves or uphold traditional university attitudes toward diversity and inclusivity of the classes. Australian cricket, however, seems to have transcended those obstacles to become a national pastime instilled with colonial legend, mythology, and heritage.
I guarantee Shane Warne would never have foreseen a nation of fans would be calling him ‘Warney’ and following his life in minute detail. No stranger to controversy, the bottle-blonded and bronzed idol was prone to scandal in his private life, so he fit the larrikin persona so completely. Larrikinism is a characteristic or personality attributed to a demographic of Australian men, and borne out of the resourcefulness, irreverence and ‘casualness’ of a nation cobbled together from bits and pieces of displaced people. The larrikin is generally an affable but mischievous and often ‘uncouth’ male, which sounds like a bad thing, but the image has become inextricably tied to the romantic vision of the rugged Aussie hero … enter Shane Warne.
Sporting heroes like Warne become the embodiment of these characteristics then. Politically their personalities are linked to the folklore and romanticized ideal of national sports, they become symbols of national pride, embedded in national and sporting culture.