No Spin

On 4 March 2022, the passing of Shane Warne shocked all of Australia and the cricketing world. His death brought a nation to a standstill as we reflected on his life and achievements. In his all-too-brief 52 years on the planet, he’d been the leg-spinner who rewrote the record books; one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the twentieth century; a sporting idol across the globe; a maverick magnet for the tabloids. But the millions of words written and spoken about Shane after his explosive arrival on the Test cricket scene in 1992 only scratched the surface. His side of the story had largely remained untold.

In No Spin, Shane himself set the record straight – and nothing was off limits. Candid and passionate, he described growing up in the suburbs of Melbourne as a football-crazy kid, being raised by parents whose own story tells us much about his desire to succeed, and he took us all the way down the road to his 700th Test wicket. Along the way were a dodgy bookmaker, a rogue pill, cruel injuries, killer comebacks, spiders and snakes, high-profile friendships and an even higher-profile relationship – alongside Ashes, World Cup and IPL glory.

Shane recorded many hours’ worth of conversations with Mark Nicholas, in which he spoke at length about his remarkable experiences. Rarely has a cricketer looked back so deeply at his life.

Perhaps most rivetingly of all, the romantic in him shared the secrets of his beloved art: the art, that is, of leg-spin. It is what he called ‘the adventure of a lifetime’ and, as he said, ‘Few batsmen, if any, truly know what I do.’

A sporting great, an irresistible celebrity, a family man and a self-confessed almost-regular Aussie bloke from the suburbs, in No Spin Shane offered a compelling insight into how a boy from Black Rock changed the face of cricket forever. His contribution to cricket and humanity will never be forgotten. There will never be another Shane Warne.