Warne says Chappelli is his biggest influence

Warne says MiD DAY columnist ChappellI was the biggest influence on his cricket career

Warne says MiD DAY columnist Chappelli was the biggest influence on his cricket career

AUSTRALIAN spin legend Shane Warne, who played his last competitive game at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday, has said that MiD DAY columnist Ian Chappell (nicknamed Chappelli) is the biggest influence of his cricketing career.

Shane Warne with Ian Chappellu00a0and India's off-spin great Erapalli Prasanna during the 1996 World Cup

"Ian impressed upon me how important it is to know yourself. That means knowing the most effective way to prepare for a game, knowing how your body works, knowing how you react to stress. Without that, you will never achieve your potential as a sportsman," Warne wrote in UK's The Telegraph newspaper.

"Ian is also tremendously insightful on the art of captaincy, which is something no one masters in a few weeks. It takes time to learn how to handle people and situations, and I have enjoyed testing myself with all the teams I captained - Australia, Victoria, Hampshire and Rajasthan.

Overall, I would say that Ian has been the biggest influence on my cricket career," added Warne on Chappell, who did not lose a Test series as captain (1971 to 1975).u00a0 In his article, Warne also wrote about the following:

Breakthrough moment...
In Colombo in 1992, he took three wickets without conceding a run to help Australia win the Test.
"That gave me the confidence to feel I could really contribute to Australia's Test team," wrote Warne, who also mentioned the Melbourne Test against the West Indies in 1992-93.

"In the first innings, I think I took one for 60-odd in front of 80,000 not-especially-impressed Victorian fans.

But then I came out in the second innings and picked up seven for 52, and I particularly remember bowling Richie Richardson with a flipper. Now my self-belief was really surging and that put me on the road to the successful Ashes series of 1993."

Best Ashes memory
That 1993 series in which he bowled the ball of the century to Mike Gatting in the Old Trafford Test. It was Warne's first ball in Test cricket against England.

However, the great leggie felt that the 2005 Ashes was a "better series from a pure cricketing point of view." Australia ended up losing that series - their first Ashes loss since 1986-87.

Favourite batsman to bowl at...
Warne names South Africa's Daryll Cullinan because, "he had no idea what was going on, which made him great fun to torment."

Least favourite batsmen to bowl to:
Sachin Tendulkar because he, "he made so few mistakes and always had a clear game plan against me." Warne also mentions Lara, who he felt was, "absolutely unplayable on his day."

India's Navjot Singh Sidhu too gets a mention. "A player with a fantastic eye who could just dance down the pitch and put you into Row Z, " the greatu00a0u00a0 tweaker wrote.