Product Description

The scandalous and hair-raising story of one of the greatest cricketers the world has ever seen

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #401606 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Synopsis
Shane Warne is a cricketing genius. At first there were nerves and chubbiness. Then came vicious spitting legbreaks, followed by fame and flippers. For a long while there were women, then a bookmaker, then diet pills, then more women - and headlines, always headlines. Now he has come out the other end, his bluff and bluster and mischief and innocence somehow intact. The man who in 2000 was rated among the five greatest cricketers of the 20th century was, in 2005, bowling better than ever. When Shane Warne likened his life to a soap opera he was selling himself short. His story is part fairytale, part pantomime, part hospital drama, part adults'-only romp, part glittering awards ceremony. He has taken a Test hat-trick, won the Man-of-the-Match prize in a World Cup final and been the subject of endless press speculation. He was the first cricketer to reach 600 Test wickets. He has swatted more runs than any other Test player without making a hundred, and is probably the wiliest captain Australia never had. He has revived the art of legspin and electrified the game. For all that, Warne's greatest feat is perhaps his latest.

Returning from a one-year ban for swallowing forbidden diuretics, he swept aside 26 Sri Lankan batsmen in three Tests, and the following year scalped an astonishing 40 wickets in a thrilling Ashes series where he alone seemed to stand between England and victory. Shane Warne is the best bowler the world has ever seen. He is a sportsman with an extraordinary God-given talent, a magician who mesmerises his opponents. He is also a kid who won't grow up and a man whose personal life teeters between tragedy and farce. "Spun Out" is his story, guts and glory, warts and all.

From the Inside Flap
At first there were nerves and chubbiness. Then came wild soaring leg breaks, followed by fame and flippers. For a long while there were women, then a bookmaker, then diet pills, then more women - and headlines, always headlines. Now he has come out the other end, his bluff and bluster and mischief and innocence somehow intact. The man who in 2000 was rated among the five greatest cricketers of the twentieth century was, in 2005, bowling better than ever.

When Shane Warne likened his life to a soap opera he was selling himself short. His story is part fairytale, part pantomime, part hospital drama, part adults-only romp, part glittering awards ceremony. He has taken a Test hat-trick, won Man of the Match in a World Cup final and been the subject of endless press speculation. He was the first cricketer to reach six hundred Test wickets. He has swatted more runs than any other Test player without making a hundred, and is probably the wiliest captain Australia never had. He revived legspin, thought to be extinct, and is now pre-eminent in a game so transformed that we sometimes wonder where the next champion fast bowlers will come from.

For all that, Warne's greatest feat is perhaps his latest. Returning from a one-year hiatus for swallowing forbidden diuretics, he swept aside twenty-six Sri Lankan batsmen in three Tests, and the following year scalped an astonishing forty wickets in what sometimes appeared to be a lone stand in a thrilling Ashes series. More than ever he relies on his two oldest friends: excruciating accuracy and an exquisite legbreak. Except that he now controls the degree of spin - and mixes it - at will. Like the great classical painters, he has stumbled upon the art of simplicity. His bowling has never been simpler, or more effective, or lovelier to look at.

From the Back Cover
A warts and all biography of a legend in more ways than one.

Shane Warne is without doubt one of the top cricketers in the world today but Spun Out doesn't merely catalogue his averages or describe every ball he has bowled.Nor is it exclusively about sex and sensation.It is a riveting portrait of the man who is known as a walking paradox: a sportsman with a God-given talent; a magician who mesmerizes his opponents; and a kid who won't grow up with a personal life that teeters between tragedy and farce.

From his childhood in Melbourne to the days when he alone seemed to stand between England and a famous Ashes victory in 2005, Shane Warne's is an extraordinary story of cricketing genius, which is part fairytale, part pantomime, part sheer hypnotic talent, part glittering awards ceremony - all guts and glory.

`A revealing biography about everyone's favourite Day-Glo Australian, the birds, boozing and drugs - it's all in here' Nuts Magazine

Customer Reviews

A Useful Addition, If Not To Everyone's Tastes
Most books about Warne (especially his own) are hagiographies. They begin with the rending of the skies and the erupting of volcanoes that foretold his birth at Mount Olympus, his father Zeus gazing down lovingly ... I am barely exaggerating. They are so overwhelmingly positive that they offend the readers' intelligence.

Barry takes the opposite tack.

If you want to read about every mistake, every transgression, every omission in Warne's life, down to whether or not he leaves the toilet seat up, then this is the book for you.

Barry is a seasoned journo who knows exactly how far he can push it (to the tolerance of one micron) and still keep the lawyers off his back. So we hear a lot of stories - sometimes nasty, sometimes petty - that didn't make it out of Australia. They paint a bleak picture, and they ring truer than the stuff Warne writes (or has ghost-written) about himself. It adds detail and colour to events which Warne draws a veil over and yet are essential to our understanding of the man.

Not an easy or pleasant read, but an important addition to the canon.

Disappointing...
While I find the subject matter fascinating and have enjoyed reading the book to a certain extent, it is pretty obvious that the author is using it as a 500-page retribution, full of bile and spite towards it subject, apparently because he refused to work with the author. The book is full of spurrious and circumstantial quotes and sources, some attributed to anonymous contributers, giving the book a glib and obviously unofficial feel. Despite the breadth of information on the subject and his full life, it even pads out a chapter with an embarrassingly bad fake newspaper article of what could have happened to Warne in a certain situation. Pathetic. Warne is classic sporting biography fodder - a flawed genius, a true legend with a scandalous private life, who no doubt deserves tough scrutiny. However, this is a deeply flawed book with without depth or any real focus other than sledging its subject.

A Waste of Money
I felt annoyed with myself after reading this book - annoyed that I had wasted my hard earned money in the hope of some meaningful insights into a cricketing great.

Instead, I read a 'cut and paste' tabloid style stitch up. There is nothing in this book that could not be gleaned from newspaper articles about Shane Warne, other than some less than scintillating recollections from childhood friends and ex school mates (presumably the only people that the author could get to talk to him).

We learn a few things about the author though - his smugness at placing money on England's 05 Ashes victory (mentioned a couple of times); the fact that he is an ex Pom (is there such a thing?); and the fact that he obviously loathes Warne. Most distasteful though are his comments about Warne's long suffering wife, Simone - both her appearance and intellectual abilities come in for a battering. It seems completely unnecessary but, sadly, par for the course in this shabby biography.

My strong advice is not to make the mistake I made by buying this book did - otherwise you too may be left not just with an emptier wallet, but also with an unpleasant taste in your mouth