Warne, ahoy hoy

Ian Chappell is pushing a familiar wagon.

Warne as captain.

Once Ian gets a woody over a girl, it doesn’t matter if she becomes a nun, the man still talks about it about what he thinks it would have been like to bonk her for the next 30 years.

It’s almost as if he doesn’t think repetition is annoying.

It’s almost as if he doesn’t think repetition is annoying.

It’s almost as if he doesn’t think repetition is annoying.

This is one of those occasions where he is right.

Warne would have been a captain and a half.

But did he have to bag all the other boring Victorian captains whilst doing so, our last 3 captains have been pretty adventurous and attacking, it was just the hundred years before that they were a bit boring.

I probably haven’t seen Warne captain as much as say someone from his home town of Hampshire has, but I have seen enough.

The first time I saw Warne captain was for Australia in a one day series against England and Sri Lanka.

The Australian team was good, but it still had some duds in it.

Brendan Julian, Shane Lee and Adam Dale to be exact.

Australia won ten of the eleven games in that series.

And Warne’s captaining was the reason.

The main thing about that series I remember was that when batsmen were hitting balls down to third man for easy singles, he would plug the gap with a 3rd or 4th slip, and let them role the dice, even if it was in the 47th over.

Also like Rajhastan now, he had them up and excited. They thought they could win every game, no matter what happened.

They were a cohesive well oiled machine, that played more like an Aussie rules team than a cricket team.

Then Steve Waugh came back, and he captained his way. Which, whilst being extremely effective in tests, wasn’t really suited to one day cricket, and Australia only won the 99 world cup because Warne, McGrath and Steve were too good when it mattered. The actual team performed terribly in that world cup.

For Victoria, the few times I saw him captain them, his tactics were impressive, but what was most impressive was the way he got players to lift for him.

Ian Harvey was a good player for Victoria, but when he played under Warne, he was Freakin Freddy Flintoff.

Darren berry seemed to only be able to bat when Warne was around.

And a bunch of journey state players stepped up under him time and time again.

The only downside I have noticed over the years is that Warne doesn’t bowl quite as well as captain, but Warne at 90% is usually enough.

What you are now seeing from the Victorian Royals is a combination of that.

Tactics that are baffling the opposition.

A mentality of we can win from anywhere.

The team playing like a footy team, hunting in a pack.

The younger players feeling inspired.

The older players feeling liberated.

And Warne at the helm telling everyone that he is the man.

If only he had kept his dick in his pants, like Keith Miller before him....
www.cricketwithballs.com "Now with extra juicy Podcast"