Australia’s Warne bows out on a low

Shane Warne bows out of professional cricket today after a frustrating final Indian Premier League season.

The Australian legend an-nounced earlier this month that he would retire as a player after the tournament, making today’s clash between his Rajasthan Royals and the Mumbai Indians the last performance of an extraordinary 15-year career.

The 41-year-old, widely regarded as one of the best bowlers of all time, retired from international cricket in 2007 after resurrecting the art of leg-spin and becoming the first player to take 700 Test wickets.

Today’s game will be the last for the Rajasthan Royals after a poor run that has seen them fail to qualify for the play-offs despite starting as one of the favourites.

After scripting a title triumph with a rag-tag team in the first edition of the Twenty20 IPL competition in 2008, Warne’s final season in charge of Rajasthan did not offer the fairy-tale end he would have wished for.

His returns from the tournament have been poor – 12 wickets from as many games, giving away 267 runs for an average of 22.25.

As has often been the case with Warne, his very public love-life has also kept the local press busy.

The flamboyant bleach-blond player, forced to deny rumours he had a facelift ahead of the IPL, was frequently pictured canoodling with British actress Liz Hurley who was on hand to watch a number of Rajasthan games.

Despite the fizzle at the end of a record-breaking career, he will ultimately be remembered as one of Australia’s best ever cricketers.

On his Test debut in 1992 he posted inauspicious figures of 1-150 but he then knuckled down under his mentor Terry Jenner and 18 months later caught the cricketing world’s attention with the “ball of the century” against England.

The delivery, Warne’s first in an Ashes Test, turned prodigiously to bamboozle England’s Mike Gatting and herald the arrival of a superstar.