Warne pulls stumps on illustrious, often controversial career

MELBOURNE (Australia)—Shane Warne has announced he will retire from international and Australian domestic cricket after the fifth Ashes test against England next month.
The 37-year-old legspinner, test cricket’s leading wicket taker with 699 dismissals, made the announcement on Thursday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He will return to the MCG on Tuesday attempting to secure his 700th test wicket in the fourth test against England. “People used to tell me you’ll know when your time is up _ I just know it’s my time,” Warne told a packed news conference. “I’d like to go out on top. I want to go out on my terms ... I’d like to think I’ve earned that right.”
Warne has played 143 matches and bowled an estimated 40,315 deliveries in his test career, much of it as the premier bowler in the world. “As a whole, I think I’ve made cricket more fun, given people more entertainment,” Warne said. “I don’t think I could have written my script any better. I thought I’d be sad, but I sit here a happy man.”
Warne said the decision had been “on my chest” for many months and he’d likely have retired last year if Australia had not lost the Ashes in England. “I don’t think I could have asked for my career to go any better,” he said. “You have your ups and downs, but I have been very lucky to play in an era when Australian cricket was very successful. “I don’t think I could have given any more to Australian cricket. I’ve given everything to the game.” While he is quitting domestic cricket for Victoria state and for Melbourne club St. Kilda, Warne confirmed he would fulfill the final two years of his contract with English county Hampshire.
Warne was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden cricketers of the century in 2000. Since October 2004, he has held the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in test cricket. In August 2005, he became the first bowler to take 600 test wickets. Warne took four wickets in the Ashes-clinching third test win in Perth which ended Monday, saying it “completed a mission” for him after the shock series loss in 2005.
Warne made an inauspicious test debut against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1992, and although many identified the natural talent of the pudgy slow bowler, few predicted greatness. For Warne, that first test remains one of his greatest career moments. “To have an opportunity to walk off in Sydney where it all began a long time ago I think is a great opportunity and something to celebrate,” he said. The fifth test against England starts Jan. 2 at the SCG.
Warne did not really announce his arrival in international cricket until 1993, when he produced the so-called “Ball of the Century” to bowled England’s Mike Gatting behind his legs with his first ever Ashes delivery. Over the last decade he’s also been a target for bad publicity and has had to overcome potentially career-ending finger and shoulder problems, and survived the backlash for his dealings with a bookmaker and a 12-month ban for taking a banned substance.
In February 2003, on the eve of Australia’s World Cup opener in South Africa, Warne was sent home after it emerged he’d failed a doping test during a series in Australia earlier in the year. Warne was found guilty of taking a banned diuretic in breach of the Australian Cricket Board’s drug code and was suspended for 12 months. Warne’s former Australian captain Allan Border said he was “in a bit of a state of shock” about the retirement announcement.
“It’s just caught everyone by surprise,” Border said on Fox Sports. When asked if Warne needed to retire, Border replied: “Well, definitely not _ he’s in superb touch, he’s bowling well, physically he’s very well.” Border captained Warne in his first test, when the leg spinner returned 1-150 against India. “There was something special about him, right from the word go,” Border said. —Agencies