Hello, and welcome to Stumped, you intercontinental hit of news, features and debate from the quirky world of cricket.
I'm Alison Mitchell in a hotel in Birmingham this week and a little bit of a departure
from my cricket world. I'm commentating on dogs for the first time.
Yes, Crufts is the biggest dog show in this country and in the world, I think it is.
I'm going to be surrounded by 1000s of pedigrees, and some cross breeds over the next few days,
but it has been a sad, sad week in the cricketing world.
We, of course, will be reflecting on this show on the awful and sad, sudden passing of Shane Warne.
Ali, you're a remarkable all-rounder, woof woof to you.
Jim Maxwell in Sydney and it's stopped raining here, but it's still pretty wet underfoot.
We're trying to think about what else is going on, but you're just blinded by last week's
tragic news of the passing of Australia's cricket Princess Diana.
No doubt about it, Shane Warne.
Whatever you thought of him, you had to know something about him.
And he was certainly very, very popular.
And it's just hard to come to grips with what I thought must have been fake news when I
first heard it, but sadly, it's not.
So, we're going to leave a legacy for him, that's for sure.
But we'll talk about that as we go.
Yes, we will. I mean it's very tragic.
Here in India, he left a very deep impact on all cricket fans.
But I'm Charu Sharma for All India Radio.
I've just back from Delhi after the Davis Cup triumph for the Indian team against Denmark,
duly so on grass, and India are back into the world group.
Jim said woof woof, didn't he, so I'll change that Alison to bow wow to you and your all-round nature.
But I'm in Bangalore and of course, all attention on the pink ball Test now against Sri Lanka.
They got hammered in the first Test by an innings and plenty and also attention Alison,
you'll be glad to hear, a fair amount for the Indian women who sadly could not perform
against New Zealand so they're up against it and I hope they do make it deeper into this World Cup.
They certainly have our support here in this part of the world.
Well, I tell you what, it's good to see both of you guys and with everything that happened
in the week, it was one of those weeks was that we wanted to get in touch with the people
who are close to you and let them know that you cared about them and sort of comfort each
other, you know, amongst your cricketing friends.
So, it's really good to see you two and to be doing Stumped.
Of course, it is nearly a week on from when the news first broke about Shane Warne's sudden death.
It was about 2pm UK time on the Friday, middle of the night in Australia, on a Friday night
into Saturday when he's management let the world know.
So, Aussies woke up to the news in shock and disbelief which was shared by all of us.
He was the king of spin, cricket's greatest ever leg spinner, arguably cricket greatest
bowler and surpassed only buying Sir Donald Bradman as Australia's greatest cricketer.
His sudden death last week in Thailand shocked all of us and Warne was not only a master
of his art who could bamboozle the greatest of batters with his leg spin, but with that
bleach blonde hair of his younger days and the charismatic personality which endured
until the end, he was an Australian icon who transcended his sport.
Warne took 708 Test wickets - the seventh most of all time - in 145 matches across a
stellar 15-year international career, which of course included the famous wicket everyone
refers to as the ball of the century - the 1993 Ashes delivery when he bowled Mike Gatting
with an outrageously turning ball at Old Trafford.
Now keeping wicket for Warne from 1999 through to the end of his international career was
Adam Gilchrist, who joins us on the show from Perth.
Gilly, it's lovely to see you after such an awful week.
Just tell us, first of all, how you're doing and how you've been processing the news?
Yeah. Hi Ali, Jim, Charu.
Great to be to seeing you and chatting with you, obviously, preferably under different
circumstances into what has been quite the most unbelievable - I think I've never used
that term and tried to mean it so much - as of what has happened in the last seven days.
But even to this point, I think we're all still finding it hard to believe that it has happened.
But look, we push on and we band together.
And that's what's happened, hasn't it?
The tributes, the reaching out of people of just wanting to hear each other's voice if
nothing else has been quite remarkable.
And I guess at the end of the day, Warnie like to shock us in everything he did, and
that's the way it's finished for him but the legend will continue to grow.
Yeah, you worked all summer with him in the Fox Sports commentary team.
Had you spoken to him recently, just before he went to Thailand?
When's the last time you've had contact?
Yeah, I spoke to him about a week before, obviously.
Yeah, was basically sitting alongside him most of the summer and then received a text from him.
Ah, look, I've assumed can't be more than a few hours before he passed away.
He sent me a really nice message just saying and acknowledging the tribute that we've had
done and that I had the absolute honour of providing the voiceover to the pictures that
our production team at Fox put together to acknowledge Rod Marsh.
And that was, as I say, a really challenging thing to do.
But it was a huge honour and I think it like so many of these tributes came up really nicely.
And Warnie message me just to say, well done, Churchy. He referred to me as church in relation
to a nickname that probably only those in the inner sanctum ever heard - Eric Gilchurch -
which young English fan gave me way back in 1997.
But it felt like a term of endearment, and it still does whenever anyone calls me that,
so I guess that means some someone knows a bit about me if they refer to me as that,
so that was Warnie's way and yeah, working with him all summer.
Just reflecting on all the thoughts and around the commentary, Warnie was... he had such brilliance
in commentary.
We all joked at times that sometimes when he got onto a good point, he probably hammered
the point a little bit too much.
He probably went over it and backed over it and drove over it again.
And everyone would laugh sort of quietly saying 'come on Warnie, your point is brilliant, but
don't go overboard' and then all of a sudden, signs would appear in the commentary box from
production staff saying, 'just let it breathe, let it breathe' and Warnie being Warnie, he'd
turn around go 'who've they written that for?'
So, he probably missed it a little bit, but jeez he was astute, he could be so brilliant
and so often was, and honest, and had an opinion.
And that's what I think everyone will always allow someone to have and that's an opinion
whether you agree or disagree.
We hope that in the societies we live in, that everyone's allowed that and entitled
to it and then hopefully it can be respected.
So, Warnie had all that.
He was he was box office, wasn't he, in everything he did.
Whether you wanted to agree or wanted to look or not, you tend to find yourself just glancing
and taking a look just in case something magical happened.
Hello Gilly.
Jim Maxwell in Sydney.
Yes. It's a shock to everyone.
Just talking about the relationship.
I mean, you mentioned Marsh and he had a great relationship with Dennis Lillee, Allen Knott
and Derek Underwood, Ian Healy and then you took over from Healy.
Were you able to read his mind as much as Ian Healy seem to be able to do?
What was it like keeping to Shane Warne?
I would hate to have got inside the mind of Shane Warne. I would have had nightmares, I would have had no sleep.
But yeah, I say that in gest. The greatest pleasure was to wicket keep to him.
And then at the end of the over, I had the pleasure of standing next to him while he was at first slip.
So, I knew Warnie and his insights and his mindset extremely well.
And you're right about that keeper-bowler relationship, Jim, particularly with Heals.
I mean, Heals was another hero of mine. He was in a position that I aspired to be in.
And I don't mean that in a way that 'come on, get out of there.'
When Heals started, I looked and just thought "imagine being in that position after you know,
Rod Marsh had been there."
So, I idolised Ian and then watched the work that he did with Shane.
And that was my biggest that was the most nervous component of me moving into Test cricket.
Just trying to maintain or get anywhere near that standard in that partnership that they
had, because I knew how vital that partnership was for Shane.
That Ian Healy's masterful glove work was paramount importance for Warnie to succeed the way he did.
I could pick Warnie out of the hand. I don't think he would ever have said that he was a difficult bowler to pick, but there's
a big difference between reading him and then being in the right position either to hit
it or to wicket keep to it so yeah, that's what I worked hard at that.
Just trying to get that right and it took a little bit of time.
Although every batter talks about 100 on debut, I didn't get that.
I got a lot better. I got a leg-side stumping off Shane Warne on debut.
So that was good enough for me.
I wouldn't say I was perfect to Warnie right from Test one.
I learned a great deal, but it was again the highlight and to have affected 59 dismissals
in partnership with Shane - which I think is the most that he had in partnership with
any wicketkeeper - well there's only two of us really so yeah, that was a huge thrill and pleasure.
Both of you Gilly, you and Warnie enjoyed glittering careers, it truly did, and you
were together for a very long time on the field for many years.
And then in the commentary box as well.
Now people grow, change, evolve, give us a sense of how this whole relationship withstood
the test of time.
Yeah, it was often a talking point among many about Warnie and my relationship.
There were times where we challenged each other, and we didn't see eye to eye.
I will say this, I never had an argument with Warnie and stood there and, and fully argued with each other.
It was never a time of that.
I'm not particularly a confrontational person, so I never had a desire.
As I say, he was already a legend in my eyes before I even got alongside him as a teammate.
So, it was a bit of a buzz, but we had a bit of conflict and a couple of Sheffield Shield
games, where he said some things to me and in time, and as you say, Charu relationships,
they evolve, and you have opportunities to discuss and go back and revisit things.
And there was one particular shield game where Warnie really ripped into me, and in hindsight,
talking with him about it, he just was saying that one he targeted me as a dangerous opponent.
And I learned that throughout his career, if he, I think almost one of the greatest
signs of respect from Shane Warne was that if he was going to have a crack at you, as
an opponent, he probably respected you.
He feared you as a cricketer, that you might be able to do some damage against him or his team.
So that was his defence mechanism or his way to try to counter it.
And I'll say this, I wasn't the only person who didn't see eye to eye with everything with Warnie.
There was always a bit of a joke in the team that who was on the on the banned list for
Warnie either for an hour or a day or a week, if you sort of said something wrong or disagreed
with him and that was the nature of the beast.
But there was something so compelling, intriguing about Warnie that you wanted to always stay interested.
And again, I'm not talking about massive blow ups, but he just come around easily.
And next minute, you'd be joking about it and laughing about it.
The next Boxing Day Test will surely be an emotional time, there'll be a huge gap in
the commentary box with you guys, but having the great Southern Stand named after him.
Did you like that when you first heard that that was gonna happen?
I actually couldn't believe it hadn't happened earlier, I really couldn't.
And it's sort of like, "well, of course that's what it should be called!"
It's hard to even think what it's going to be like not having that presence in and around
the media centre or out on the field or whatever or commentary, or the press headlines.
Every time you spoke, someone made a headline out of it.
So he's going to be missed. Yeah, a big void.
Gilly, thank you so much for joining us on Stumped.
We really appreciate it and it's been fantastic to hear your memories of Shane Warne, and
we will all miss him as well.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, take care everyone. Bye bye.
That's Adam Gilchrist of course former Australia 'keeper and teammate of Shane Warne.
Jim, the Victorian Government have been very quick in finding ways to honour Shane Warne,
haven't they - not just the great Southern Stand that Gilly was talking about just then,
but in terms of funeral arrangements as well?
Yes, March the 30th is the date for this state funeral that's been offered to the family
which they've accepted.
And, yeah, it'll be an extraordinary occasion.
I know it's becoming a bit of a cliche to say it's cricket's Princess Diana moment,
but it is rather like that.
People who are on the fringe of the game, you may not be great followers of cricket
per se, but they've heard of Shane Warne.
And I have a feeling that we might fill the ground on that day.
And it's going to be an extraordinary occasion and his nickname, although not everyone liked
it and I don't think he liked it that much was 'The king'. So it will be a king's farewell service, that's for sure.
It will be huge. It will be one of the biggest events of the year. No doubt about it.
Charu, give us a sense of Warne's standing in India and also the personal memories that
you have of him that you'll hold close.
I think the defining moment whether Warnie would agree with this or not, and it might
be a small little pimple on the world, on the global cricket scene.
But the truth is that when the IPL started, people gave Rajasthan Royals no chance at all.
They were the team that had under picked and were unlikely to underperform.
I mean by streets ahead, the underdogs of the first ever IPL and for him to weave that bunch
together into this winning group was just something that was celebrated massively at the time.
And I'm sure that the first is always special.
And people remember still, the fact that Shane Warne put this bunch together and took the
first ever IPL title, even though he was perhaps slightly beyond his playing days in those days.
But that will be the big one that Indians will remember Shane Warne by, the fact that
he came, and he skippered a team.
And also the fact that he bonded so well, but not just the stars of the team.
I think Gilly was talking about it a little earlier, he had different relationships with
different people and to the lesser stars of Rajasthan Royals then and a little later as
well, the fact that he would go to their home and eat with them and share very special personal
time with just the junior most members of the team.
That's what elevated him to well beyond the fact that he was one of the best spinners in the world.
I was always working for different networks.
I was commentating for the BBC or ABC or Seven in Australia, and he was always Sky and Fox,
and All-Nine but yeah, World Cup in 2014 in Bangladesh, I commentated alongside him and
he commentated on the women's semi's and final.
And a little bit like when Gilly was saying there about he really wanted to sort of impress Shane Warne.
He wanted to show that he was a good wicket keeper.
I think of everybody that I've commentated alongside - and Shane Warne one was my favourite
cricketer as a cricket fan growing up when I was 13 years old when the ball of the century was bowled.
You could not have been more respectful and generous and even deferring to me for the
knowledge at various times as well in commentary, so it was almost as if he knew that I could
have been a little bit overawed maybe, and without saying anything he wanted to make sure that I wasn't.
I think it perhaps be appropriate we can finish with some words from Sachin Tendulkar, in
fact, because he was a personal friend of Shane Warne, of course, tributes have poured
in from all over the world but Tendulkar's words he tweeted that he was "shocked, stunned and miserable."
He said, "We'll miss you Warnie.
There was never a dull moment with you around on or off the field.
I will always treasure our on-field duels and off field banter.
You always had a special place for India and Indians have a special place for you."
And he finished with simply the words "gone too young."
Well, that's all we've got time for Stumped here on All India Radio.
So, my thanks to Charu Sharma and Jim Maxwell and of course, to you all for listening and
watching indeed on YouTube.
If you find us there you go to the BBC World Service YouTube channel and you can watch
all our shows.
You can follow us on Twitter as well.
We're @BBCWSSport and use #BBCStumped.
Until next week, take care and we'll see you then. Bye bye.