Wisden overview
Shane Warne is one of the few players who can truly be said to have revolutionised cricket. Not only is he the most successful spin bowler in history, Australia's leading alltime wicket-taker and one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the 20th Century, but he revived a craft that was almost extinct and made it for a time the most powerful force in the game. No previous wrist-spinner has been at once so prodigious in his drift and turn, so accurate, so mean and so tireless. No previous wrist-spinner has humiliated so many good batsmen. And no previous wrist-spinner has succeeded so handsomely in one-day cricket; all others were thought too profligate. He is also a capable if cavalier lower-order batsman, and latterly a safe slip fielder. Warne has been as controversial as he has been irresistible, frequently finding himself enmeshed in off-field dramas and even at the periphery of match-fixing. He once said his life felt like a soap opera, and his nickname is Hollywood, after all. His exertions appeared to have taken their toll, and surgery on a shoulder and a finger robbed him of some of his old powers, though his ability to eat Englishmen for breakfast didn't diminish. He seemed to have fought back from another shoulder injury in December 2002 - a dislocation after an awkward fall in the field – but his World Cup campaign ended even before it began, when he tested positive for a diuretic. The 12-month ban which followed threatens to end a remarkable career. Greg Baum

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