Australia legend Warne is by no means the first fortysomething cricketer to unretire himself, and he will not be the last
Shane Warne, who in truth never really went away, is back. Six months on from his most recent retirement ? an emotional farewell in the colours of the Rajasthan Royals at the end of the Indian Premier League season ? the greatest spin bowler of the modern era has formally unretired himself to play for his home city team, the Melbourne Stars, in Australia's Twenty20 Big Bash League, which starts next month.
Warne, who is now 42, will be paid A$50,000 (�32,150) for playing in the competition, but has denied that his return is financially motivated. "It's got nothing to do with money or I would still be playing in the IPL," Warne said on Tuesday.
"My kids, who are 14, 12 and 10, can't really remember Dad playing cricket that much. For my kids and Elizabeth [Hurley] to come out and see me playing cricket here at the MCG will be pretty special. I'm in such good shape at the moment."
Warne is undeniably a different shape, having lost 12kg of his familiar heft since entering a paparazzi-catnip romantic entwinement with Hurley. As such his athletic rejuvenation could be cast as just another symptom of the freshly blooming youthfulness that has been much remarked in his public appearances over the past two years: a gleaming, wrinkle-free quality that Warne has attributed to a combination of happiness and a high quality facial moisturiser. It will be fascinating to see how this unusually lithe new-model Warne performs on his return.
Posing for pictures at the MCG in the Stars' green Big Bash tunics, Warne 2.0 did look significantly slimmer and more gleamingly vital than the rotund superstar who took 708 Test wickets over a 15-year international career. The rugby league player's shoulders and the unusually strong hands and wrists remain, though. And if, in his final season of IPL cricket, Warne's bowling arm had begun to creak down well below the perpendicular, giving him the appearance at the bowling crease of a man jogging along a provincial high street attempting to hail a late-night taxi, there was little evidence of a decline in his effectiveness in four-over spells.
This is more than just a localised Warne phenomenon, however. Joining him in unretirement at the Big Bash will be Brad Hogg, Warne's replacement in Australia's one-day team after his international retirement, who has returned aged 40 to play for the Perth Scorchers, while Matthew Hayden, also 40, will be appearing for the Brisbane Heat. Even more dramatic, albeit to date confined to grade cricket, the 49-year-old batting great Martin Crowe this week returned to play for Cornwall cricket club in New Zealand and may yet play at first-class level again with Auckland Central Districts.
There are various theories as to why this trend towards middle-aged cricketing reanimation should be occurring now. Many would point to the money Twenty20 cricket has brought into the game, an irresistible lure for a generation of older players eager for their own slice of cricket's greatest ever payday. The cynic would also point to the fact that Warne has just opened a nightclub in Melbourne and that this is all wonderful publicity for a man who is, frankly, already drenched in an excess of publicity.
It is perhaps also to do with the game: the Twenty20 skill-set puts a premium on cool heads and craft as well as athleticism, with matches in the shortest form often decided by a moment as much as a spell, by inspiration as much as stamina. Twenty20, for all its teenage pizzazz, is surprisingly age-tolerant.
There is also a peculiar circularity to all this. In the pre-modern era players would often endure into their forties, or abruptly reappear on the scene. Fred Titmus retired in 1976, but came back in 1978 and finally in 1982, aged 49, for a one-off appearance against Surrey.
Dennis Lillee repeatedly embarrassed England's touring teams with his fortysomething pace-bowling prowess during Ashes tour appearances for the Prime Minister's XI in the 1990s. And of course WG Grace ? like Warne, not just an all-time great but a fiercely shrewd entrepreneurial showman ? played first-class cricket until he was 60.
By which measure, Warne of the Melbourne Stars may have a few more retirements left in him yet.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/nov/08/shane-warne-comeback-big-bash
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