It's so sad that very soon after this documentary was released, Shane Warne, the Australian leg-spinning cricketing legend, should pass away at the age of only 52. But it seems to be the fate of a select number of hell-raising, glamorous, big personality sport stars to be taken far too young and Warne, like motor-racing champion James Hunt and golfing superstar Seve Ballesteros before him, wouldn't ever enter old age. I still remember the shock of hearing the news of his death, all the more poignant as Warne had earlier that day only just communicated his own commiserations to the family on the death that morning of another Australian cricketing great, wicket-keeper Rodney Marsh, before he too passed.
This documentary attempts to condense the great man's turbulent personal and sporting life into a 90+ minute documentary so of course it can only give a flavour of him, but it seems clear that while he was a flawed individual, being sometimes self-confessedly guilty of naivety, selfishness and pig-headedness, he nevertheless comes across as a good bloke, as well as being a helluva cricketer, who connected equally with celebrities (Coldplay's Chris Martin and Ed Sheeran pay tribute here and I recall eulogies on his death from fellow-fans Mick Jagger and Elton John) and the man and woman in the street.
With the active participation of his family, including contributions from his ex-wife, three children, parents and younger brother, we get the back story of his youthful development, learning that his first chosen sport was actually Aussie Rules Football, but when this career stalled, he turned to cricket, encouraged in this by his once-disgraced fellow-countryman Test bowler Terry Jenner, where he found he could master the almost obsolete technique of leg-spin bowling, considered the most difficult bowling style of all to perfect.
After a slow start on two Asian tours, his Test career kicked off firstly in Sri Lanka and went stratospheric with the "Ball Of The Century, which was his first ball bowled in his first Ashes Test in England and which spectacularly cleaned up Mike Gatting. Then even as he started racking up the first of his over seven hundred victims, there were the almost inevitable cricketing run-ins he had later in his career with the powers-that-be, involving firstly allegations of match-fixing in Pakistan where he was cleared, then the pitch-report scandal in India involving him and Mark Waugh which he got over and then finally of taking an illegal substance where he was found guilty and suspended from playing for a year.
He talks of his failed marriage but appears to have stayed on good terms with his ex-wife and three now-adult children. Family, friends and fellow cricketers (the latter including Alan Border, Sachin Tendular and Ian Botham but naturally not Steve Waugh!) all speak well of him as a great player, competitor and great company, although I might also to have expected to hear from the likes of Liz Hurley, Glenn McGrath and Brian Lara to name but three who also played major parts in his personal and sporting lives.
Like I said, I might have wished for this film to be longer and show a little more of his cricketing exploits but I got enough from it to make my own judgement about the man behind the myth.
R. I. P. Shane, a one-of-a-kind cricketer and thoroughly likeable guy, who died in an untimely fashion, just as he seemed to be at peace with himself.
