21st December, 2006 | Back to Shane Warne Index

 

Cricket Australia tribute to Shane Warne

Cricket Australia today paid tribute to Shane Warne as one of the greatest players to have worn the baggy green cap.

Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said Warne’s contribution to Australian cricket transcended his impressive playing statistics.

“To take 699 and probably more Test wickets is simply staggering, and to also have been a champion one-day cricketer is a tribute to his skill, versatility and durability as an elite sportsman.

“But to personally change the course of so many games, to excite the public imagination about cricket the way he has and to inspire a generation of Australian kids to take up the once neglected art of leg-spinning takes him beyond the stats and puts him in a league of his own.

“Warne has been one of a group of current champions who has made this Australian team the number one Test and ODI team in the world for an extended period,” he said.

Mr Sutherland said he respected Warne’s decision to bow out on his own terms and at the top of his game.

“There are a generation of Australians who were privileged enough to see Bradman. We are the generation that will always say we were privileged to see Warne.

“Those fans lucky enough to be in Melbourne or Sydney now have one last chance to see this once-in-a-lifetime champion and we urge them to do everything they can to be there,” he said.

Warne’s many accolades include captaining the Australian ODI side on 11 occasions, being named in the Australian Test Team of the Century, and he was named alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir Garry Sobers and Sir Vivian Richards as one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the 20th century.

His Allan Border Medal awards include being named Test Player of the Year (2006) and One-Day

International Player of the Year (2000).

 

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