The Oval that Shane Warne made his home

A visit to the Junction Oval in Melbourne, where ex-Australia player Shaun Graf speaks about the departed great’s first steps in competitive cricket

The brilliant cricket career of the late Shane Warne is one of those amazing stories of a short and fat boy from St Kilda here who started as an opening batsman before becoming a leg spin legend, says cricketer-turned administrator Shaun Graf.

“He was just one of those amazing stories. We did not expect someone coming through as a young, tubby fellow to go on and play for Victoria, Australia and be such a legend of Australian cricket and probably the next best cricketer after (Sir) Don Bradman,” said Graf in a casual conversation with visiting Indian scribes at Cricket Victoria’s headquarters, Junction Oval.

The spin king shockingly passed away aged 52 on March 4 after suffering a heart attack while holidaying in Thailand.

Cricket Victoria’s General Manager (Cricket Performance) Shaun Graf addresses the team before start of Day Five of the Sheffield Shield final against Western Australia at the WACA in Perth on April 4. Pic/Getty Images

Graf, who represented his country in 11 ODIs and also played against the likes of Indian legends Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath in the early 1980s, later turned into a respected cricket administrator donning a variety of hats before retiring as Cricket Victoria’s General Manager-Cricket Performance after a three-decade-long stint.

“He came here as a very wide-eyed young fellow. He was a batsman and, as a matter of fact, opened the batting. He used to come here, park his car with his music blasting and we always knew when he arrived at the ground. We did not think he would go to the next level.

“But one thing he had was he could turn the ball big and that is something that stood out. And he certainly knew the game. He actually set his field and understood how to get people out. That was a major plus for him. The whole career he was aggressive, but he also understood how to set the players up and get them out”, Graf explained about how the teenaged batsman shifted roles and became an all-time leg spinning great with a bagful of 708 and 293 wickets in Tests and ODIs.

Graf, among the selected mourners at Warne’s private funeral, described how the sudden demise of the cricket great was received at his home ground here during a match.

 “We were hit pretty hard here. We were playing a game here and at the end of the day's play surrounded the wicket, had his jumper, sang the club song with his shirt (draped) over the stumps. It was pretty hard. I went to his private funeral and it was pretty sad.”

Although Warne had played 50 games for St Kilda he did not secure a fifer as a bowler but made a hundred in that phase.

“He played over 50 games for St Kilda, (he had) no five-for, but had got a hundred. The wickets were all one-day, two-day pitches, so spin does not come to play as much as for four and five-day matches. It’s a different ball game,” said Graf about the Junction Oval where Australia’s well known Sheffield Shield matches are also being held regularly, other than Big Bash League and Women’s Big Bash League fixtures.

To honour the memory of Warne, a stand is being named after him which is adjacent to the Bert Ironmonger Stand.

 “We are going through the process and the far stand, we are going to call it Shane Warne stand. We were going to put in for that before he died. I had spoken to him about it. The MCG (Melbourne Cricket Club) named a stand after him and this will also be the Shane Warne stand.

“I had actually spoke to him about that -- naming it as the Shane Warne stand. I asked him ‘do you want the Shane Warne Stand, the SK Warne or Shane Keith Warne’ and he said ‘I just want the Shane Warne Stand’ and that's why they named it the Shane Warne Stand at the MCG.

“Underneath the old stand that is going to be the Shane Warne Stand, a lot of memorabilia will be put up. The government will fund us. CA (Cricket Australia) and Cricket Victoria will give 10 million (Australian dollars) and the government will give 25 (million). We are going to put lights there (at the ground which was refurbished in 2017)”. 

Also Read: Shane Warne (1969-2022): King of spin out

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