No matter how much he is hated for his off-field activities, Shane Warne has always been adored on the cricket ground.

By Rohit Sakunia

It was the match between the Deccan Chargers and the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL first edition. Yusuf Pathan was given the ball to bowl to the ever menacing Adam Gilchrist. He got him out, and the person who was delighted the most was his skipper Shane Warne. He gave some signal towards the dug-out. Later it became a great story that the Gilli dismissal was carefully planned by Shane Warne himself and the fact that his plan succeeded made him jump in joy.

Such moments have not come in bits and pieces for Warne. He has been an undisputed champion of the sport and has mastered the most difficult trait in the world of cricket, leg-spin bowling.

People, who have not played a lot of active cricket also know that the art of leg-spin is one of the most difficult ones to fathom. Control is very difficult to achieve and accuracy is a huge problem. Add to this the issues with injury and you have a lot of things up your sleeves to take care of.

But the way this wizard of leg-spin spelled magic over batsmen for 15 years and is still continuing to do so in the limited cricket that he plays, is a puzzle in itself.

Somebody who has brought Australia the 1999 World Cup almost single-handedly and only God knows how many Ashes, Shane Warne has always been a great contributor. It was his partnership with Glenn McGrath that made the Aussie bowling line-up the most potent in the world of cricket for a decade, to say the least.

And even at this age his penchant towards winning is undisputed. The way he led an underdog team to the podium in the multi billion dollar tournament where even the most liberal of critics were unwilling to give them any chance is a management case study in itself.

Though the bowlers were bowling, but a look at the ground activities of the team and you would understand that the action and the pace might be coming from the bowler but the brain behind each delivery was that of the champion himself.

Not only did he bowl well and controlled his team beautifully, but he also made sure that whenever he got a chance he did the job with the willow as well. His boundary of the last ball of the penultimate over by Makhaya Ntini in the finals of IPL made sure he and Sohail Tanvir only had eight runs to chase in the last over.

Warne could have easily been one of Australia's best ever captains had it not been for his off-field activities which took centre-stage more often than not. But come what may, Australian cricket would definitely thank God a million times for the fantastic script that this champion player produced on the cricket ground every time he was on it.