Warne in decline

The once lovable rouge of Australian cricket has of late grown into a grumpy bitter speaker of all things 'Shane Warne'

For fear of attacks from my fellow Victorians; I'm proud I stood up for the Shane of old when the media hounded him over loose women; cigarette packets and dancing stumps. I even forgave his Mother for that little pill she gave him.

I had great joy in watching his five wickets at the MCG in his final Ashes Series; and his tormenting of the old enemy always gave me cart loads of ammunition to fire at my English friends.

Yet like so many of the Golden Generation; the Baggy Cap era of dominance; Shane has done remarkably well to hang on to his talents. Gilchrist started to mistime them, while Brett Lee avoids injury. All it seems now has caught up to 'Warney' as almost evident as the new breed in Arron Finch swatted him to the boundary in the opening of the BBL.

Prior to this it was Shane Warne dragging the promotional wagon around every radio station, news outlet, with his virtual sandwich board of lines and quotes. The most notable of these his ability 'if' he wanted to return to test cricket. Like a magician that's running out of tricks Shane knows the value of classic misdirection.

There is no doubting his sway in the world of sporting politics and the media; he had only cough in the right direction and news outlets talk of a virus; but there comes a time when a screaming kettles is no longer needed for a hot cup of coffee.

His recent outburst at Marlon Samuels, although great theater showed nothing more than an aging sportsmans spite at being over shadowed; his barking at Australian selectors regarding Pattinson's availability showed an attempt to use personality over the rules of the league, and his clear attempt to sway umpires during the BBL Semi-Final's rain interval as the Melbourne Stars 'captain' James Faulkner was resigned to on-field captain only.

I feel that sinking feeling of sportsman that has played one to many sets; a boxer who has made one to many comebacks. Shane Warne is a cricket Don King, an excellent self-promoter and would be a loss to the Melbourne Stars if he was to completely walk away. And he still has value to the game be it from a coach, mentor or marketing; yet his time as a cricketer must surely have ended this evening against the Perth Scortchers when the scorecard reads Shane Warne 0-0-0-0 dnb.