The last larrikin
Depending on where you’re from, you’re either well-acquainted with a certain Shane Warne or you’ve never heard of him.
For those in the second group, ‘Warnie’ was one of the greatest cricket players in the world. His pioneering bowling techniques were the terror of batsmen, helping Australia dominate the sport for decades.
You don’t have to understand anything about cricket in order to read this post, but for the record here is a clip of him playing:
Warnie is also the greatest and perhaps final example of an Aussie type: the loveable larrikin.
This is a great man of charm and character who is so hopelessly flawed that it seems almost innocent; like a child. The larrikin is not evil. He just can’t help being what he is.
My favourite Warnie scandal was the one in New Zealand. A long-time smoker, he’d signed up with a nicotine patch company (or something) and agreed to quit. However, a Kiwi boy caught him smoking in the stadium and took a picture. Warnie took off after him and grabbed his bag, demanding he remove the film from the camera. Cops arrived and he returned the bag. He denied swearing at the lad.
Classic Warnie: falling off the tobacco wagon would have been a much smaller scandal that shirtfronting a kid, but this is Warnie.
He can do no other.
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