Here's a little gem from zscore's website on TGM:
http://www.sportstats.com.au/bloghome.htmlWith Shane Warne dominating the sporting pages once again, there has been no lack of statistical analysis thrown about. But perhaps one aspect of Warne’s Test career, its start, could do with a little more. Strange to report (for this column), but Warne’s early career was a triumph of selectorial judgement over statistics.
Consider Warne’s pre-Test career, or the lack of it. Warne played only seven first-class matches before his Test debut. For Victoria, he had just eight wickets to his credit. Few bowlers have been selected for Australia on so little information. Here is a list of those with fewest wickets in Australian first-class cricket on Test debut, (since 1900):
JR Watkins (1973): 5 matches, 10 wickets.
MR Whitney (1981): 4 matches, 11 wickets.
WJ Whitty (1909): 6 matches, 14 wickets.
SK Warne (1992): 5 matches, 15 wickets.
JR Thomson(1972): 6 matches, 18 wickets.
John Watkins was one of the greatest selectorial disasters ever: not only was his Test bowling (against Pakistan) an embarrassment, but he never played first-class cricket in Australia again. (However, he did add 84 in a match-turning 9th-wicket stand with Bob Massie, who was also playing his last Test). Mike Whitney was a special case: he happened to be playing in England when the 1981 touring team was struck by injury, and as with Bill Whitty in 1909, he had form in England to go on.
Warne’s early promise, while recognised by many, was entirely of the non-statistical kind. After taking 1 for 150 on debut, his average climbed to a disastrous 346 just before his second wicket. This is the worst Test average ever endured, however briefly, by any Australian bowler. Next on the list is part-timer Ian Chappell, whose average once stood at 267. Only a handful of bowlers have known worse averages, led by Khaled Mahmud (Bangladesh) 480, FR Martin (West Indies), 480 (approx.) and RF Surti (India), 458. Less well known is the fact that Warne, after taking 3 for 11 against Sri Lanka, continued to struggle. He went wicketless for the rest of the series, and was not selected for the first Test of the West Indies tour of 1992/93. For the second Test at Melbourne, injuries brought him back into the team, and after a single tailend wicket in the first innings, he finally turned it around with a second-innings 7 for 52. In the meantime his average had risen above 100 once again, reaching 112.75.
One wonders if such selectorial indulgence would be repeated in this era of total Australian dominance. In any case, Warne’s subsequent career is a testament to self-belief.
That 7 for 52 remains his best innings return at Melbourne, revealing another oddity of Warne’s career. Success on his home ground has been surprisingly limited, even though his total of 49 wickets at the MCG, so far, is second only to Dennis Lillee’s 82. In senior cricket of all kinds, barely ten per cent of Warne’s 1,700-plus wickets have been taken on the MCG. Warne has never taken ten wickets in a first-class match on the MCG, and his name will not be found on a list of the 100 best bowling performances at the ground. Warne has a weaker record in Tests at the MCG than in Sydney, Brisbane or Adelaide, or in Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Perhaps this underlines Warne’s greatness even more, in that he has fashioned such a career in spite of being unsuited to his home ground. In this respect, at least, he is very different to his great rival, Muralitharan, who performs so much better home than away.
