“He was the king bowler, the great bowler, but also the great sledger.”
It was with those words that former England captain Nasser Hussain began to recall a priceless story of Shane Warne the sledger at the cricket legend’s memorial.
Sharing a panel with cricket greats Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Merv Hughes and Brian Lara, Hussain looked back on a brilliant moment in a 1999 one-dayer between Australia and England at the SCG.
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Hussain hadn’t yet become England captain, but he was on the receiving end of Warne’s relentless sledging and masterful leg-spin art during a knock of 58.
“… he seemed to just wait for me to come out,” Hussain said of Warne, who was Australia’s captain in Steve Waugh’s absence.
“There was one of those triangular finals in 1999. We were just thrilled to be in a triangular finals in Australia. We were usually in the hotel, to be honest.
“He had been sledging me all day and he brought himself on to bowl because AB (Border) had told him 20 years earlier, ‘If you’re struggling, pick a fight with someone’. He picks a fight with me.
“I sledged him for some apparent reason and I’ve said something like, ‘Enjoy your last game as captain. Steve Waugh is back next game. You’re never going to captain Australia again’, which at the time seemed a really good thing to do, because we needed 40 (runs) off 10 overs with seven wickets in hand.
“I’ll be surprised if you haven’t got the footage of me running down the pitch, very next delivery after that slog sweep,” Hussain said with a laugh.
When Border knew Warne was special
The replay then rolled through at the MCG memorial.
“Oh, my days,” Hussain said, shaking his head.
“That shot doesn’t get any better 23 years later. Stumped (Adam) Gilchrist, bowled Warne. Look at the celebration. The drift in. I am in a different postcode to that ball. Look at the celebration. How often we have we seen that?
“We lost 7-30. We lost by 10 runs and Bumble (then-England coach David Lloyd) didn’t speak to me for a month.”
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