You know you are in trouble as a credible celebrity when the media starts to make mocking jokes about you and your activities. This is what is starting to happen with Shane Warne.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief sports columnist (and a very good one, too), Richard Hinds, has reported that an American reporter at the Australian Open tennis tournament has tweeted: “Shane Warne? That’s Liz Hurley’s boyfriend. Right.# handbag.”
And Hinds himself made a rather good joke himself when in reference to Ms Hurley’s appallingly ungracious behaviour to a female journalist at Perth Airport after her fiance’s team the Stars were defeated in the semi-final of The Big Bash.
He said the encounter proved one thing: “Liz Hurley and Shane Warne are perfect for each other.”
Asked the reasonable question of what she thought about the game, the English rose Hurley told Cathy Price, “I think you should f*** off.”
Last season, the first year of The Big Bash, there was considerable excitement among cricket lovers (myself included) at the return to prime time cricket of Warne. The chance to see the ‘Sultan of Spin,’ rated by Wisden as one of the five greatest cricketers of the 20th century in action again was a thrilling proposition.
And Warne didn’t disappoint. He bowled well, with a characteristic bravado, craft and intelligence. All miked up (and hyped up, too) he told the commentators, in one game, how he was going to dismiss Brendan McCallum.
And, would you believe it?, he did just that by spearing a quicker, spinning delivery outside the leg stump and bowling the bewildered batsman around his legs.
The miracle man strikes again!
This season though the talking up how batsmen were going to be dismissed blew up in his face. Presumed wicket-deliveries soared over the boundary rope into the stands.
Warne was reduced to a caricature of the scheming and brilliant exponent of deceiving batsmen with sleight of hand. He had become an old conjuror who had lost the magic in his fingers to deceive his opposition.
You had the sense that he had morphed into something different from a smart, clever, extrovert and brilliant bowler into a sort of showbusiness conman posing as a leg spin bowler.
I am an ancient and my sporting memory goes back to the 1940s (dimly) and gets stronger from the 1950s onwards.
And the more I watched Warne go through his antics on and off the cricket field this season the more I realised that he had morphed into a 21st version of of the ‘charismatic … flamboyant … outrageous’ American professional wrestler of the 1940s through to the 1960s, George Wagner aka in the ring as Gorgeous George.
You can see some of Gorgeous George’s antics below. His pre-match routine required his butler to spray the ring with a perfume before the golden haired (heavily peroxided) Gorgeous George began to strut around, teasing his flowing locks and provoking the spectators with his mincing strut into howls of rage.
Gorgeous George did stunts like getting married in the ring, a ceremony that was re-enacted many times. He invariably went through a routine, too, to prevent the referee or an emboldened opponent from opening his dressing gown.
His butler did this, or he occasionally did the opening routine himself. And then he pranced and cavorted around the ring, somewhat like a more muscular and aggressive Liberace, to provoke the cries and shouts of the spectators.
There is an excellent Wikipedia account of Gorgeous George’s life under the heading of: George Wagner. The point to make here is that Gorgeous George and the wrestling original Lord Patrick Lansdowne developed an act that would play on the newly emerging media outlet, commercial television.
Wrestling changed virtually over-night from a world-wide professional sport with its champions and world titles to a part of show business with phony titles, phony outcomes and phony performers.
And as this happened, the sport turned into a business with smart operators taking over parts of wrestling and making it more and more outrageous and much more more vaudeville than any notion of a sport.
And with every new projection of the outrageous, a newer and more outrageous projection of the sport was needed.
Now wrestling is being supplanted by cage fighting which will, probably, go through the same gyrations from a sport to a total spectacle when its promoters decide this is what has to happen.
This brings us back to Shane Warne. There is no doubt that his involvement with The Big Bash has helped immeasurably in ensuring its success. It is expected that without Warne next year, this season’s ratings which have fallen 30 percent from the 2011-12 season will fall another 30 per cent.
But I believe that Warne must be kept out of the next Big Bash. The SMH conducted a poll on who was wrong in the Warne-Samuels argument.
An astonishing 66 per cent voted that Warne was in the wrong.
My take on this is that the days of Warne getting away with anything and everything because he is ‘Warnie’ are over. The regard for him as a cricketer is going, if it hasn’t disappeared.
There is a growing understanding that he has become an idiot celebrity with his insistence on everyone calling paramour Ms Hurley his ‘fiancee,’ his capped teeth, faux hair and waxworks face and body.
The Big Bash has a strong place in the cricket calendar. But, and this is a point that Gideon Haigh makes strongly, the tournament has to be a cricket tournament. If the emphasis is on the game and the way it is played and on the competition, it will be a great hit with supporters at the ground and watching on television.
This means killing off Shane Warne as a ‘Gorgeous Shane’ player before he turns The Big Bash into a celebrity-driven nonsense.
Tenash
Guest
Bill well then u must be the great wise one ! And all the tv companies and advertisers who pour in hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars, based on those same tv ratings, into tv shows and all sports around the WORLD and not just in Australia must be dumb
micka
Guest
"Asked the reasonable question of what she thought about the game, the English rose Hurley told Cathy Price, “I think you should f*** off.”" Jeez Spiro, if you really think that is a sensible question you have been hanging around with your journo mates too long. What did Cathy Price expect from that gem? "Gee Whiz Cathy, seeing my partner cop a flogging was fantastic, I think the game went really well. They shouldn't change a thing..." Journos really need to smarten up their questions. I remember after the floods in Queensland some knob from the ABC went up to a bloke who watched his house float away and his neighbours actually drown and asked "How do you feel?' Seriously? What the flip was she asking Liz Hurley about Cricket for anyway? Did she expect her to go into some in depth spiel about selections, training issues and a summary of the teams injuries and how their treatment is going? Ask a stupid person, an even more stupid question and you deserve to be told to "f*** off".
Don Corleone
Guest
@Bill, The BBL figures are for Pay TV therefore each Austar/Foxtel box tuned into Fox Sports 502 (for instance) would register as a statistic...so it's not based on a sample. The statistics are published by ASTRA - Subscription Television Australia.
Parisien
Guest
Double take! "Oh no! Warney's the Boy George of cricket" Ok, I mis-read.
Bill
Guest
I for one, don't believe in reported TV ratings because they CAN'T be independently proven! And I believe it is simply IMPOSSIBLE to work out accurately what the majority of Australians are watching on TV based on a sample of 4,500 people who happen to have a ratings monitor in their home. I don't even know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone that has one of these mythical machines in their home!
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Shane Keith has turned into an angry ant IMO and it appears maybe his better half has too.That incident with Samuels was ridiculous. Chill out Warnie, you are punching well above your weight old trouser !
Minister for Information for the Democratic People's Republic of Football
Guest
See ya Warnie! You're free to toodle off into the sunset. Thanks for the memories but you are free to join Rolph Harris,Kylie Minogue,Natalie Imbruglia and Dame Edna in the sunny UK where Aussie has-beens rate indefinitely.
Lucan
Suspect this is in reference to his continuing to smoke, while being the face of an anti-smoking product.
Tenash
Guest
Don C way to put a troll in his place mate. Lol
Don Corleone
Guest
@Rabbitz I doubt whether the drop is significant at all. There's absolutely nothing remotely competing directly with BBL on pay TV, sport or non-sport. It's a rare occasion over the summer in which non-BBL programs get into triple figures let alone average above 230,000 and rate as high as 369,000. The early start time for BBL02 was a risk that didn't pay off, but both crowds and TV rating both recovered to BBL01 levels in the traditional timeslot. It shouldn't be misinterpreted as a lack of interest. Free-to-air exposure will mean only big things for BBL as casual viewers will get to see it rather than people with Pay TV who specifically chose the sports package option.
Sherry
Guest
SPIRO - It's often a mistake to rely solely on Wiki for research. Their entry on GG is not at all excellent - it was written by an amateur who didn't know the GG story. I'm older than you - but admittedly not as smart - and I saw George wrestle on several occasions - at Rushcutters Bay stadium when I was a kid as well as in Chicago - he fought legends like Yukon Eric and Hans Schmidt - and I was present at Maple Leaf Gardens when he went up against Billy Watson. After GG got through with the theatrics he was a sensational wrestler. Very fast and tough and extremely canny with a high- kicking body slam that floored most of his opponents. He didn't have to eye gouge or fight dirty because he knew more than anybody. You may, of course, compare Shane with George, that's up to you. But you're doing a disservice to a great wrestler by directing people to the Wiki article.
Don Corleone
Guest
I googled 'ALeague circus' and got 46,700,000. I googled 'NRL circus' and got 9,190,000. I googled 'AFL circus' and got 1,190,000. Does that make BBL the least circus-y of the lot?
Tenash
Guest
kasey there is absolutely no need for anyone to 'attack' others if u just act in a mature way and put out facts to support your arguments rather than trolling sports u don't like if i am correct your the same A-league fanboy who abused me when i put up accurate crowd and tv figures its a bit rich coming from someone who calls others tools and taliban to take a victim stance
Mango Jack
Guest
That's what happens when the coked-up marketers take control. I've been to a couple of BBL games but I won't go back. The blaring music between deliveries is just so irritating. Shame, cos the cricket can be entertaining.
Tenash
Guest
rabbitz mate i don't think u have any idea about tv ratings at all. What part of, its rating close to NRL and above AFL,Super Rugby and A-league, do u not understand ? The BBL is currently, like A-league and Super Rugby, only available on pay tv Pay tv currently only reaches 30 percent of Aus households. So BBL on FTA will most likely reach 3 times more viewers so BBl's fate is in CA's hand only. And as for t20 its going nowhere. Doesn't matter how much u moan and cry
Kasey
Guest
Once again you choose to attack me because I have a differrent attitude to cricket than you do. you're like the cricket taliban. I’m obviously not the only one to think along those lines…here’s your facts: Google ' “Big Bash League” circus' and you receive 76,300 results. Fact. EAD
Tenash
Guest
kasey you lose credibility immediately when u accuse something of being a circus rather than putting out facts to support your arguments there are many things wrong with the BBL but 95 percent are off-field like the awful,crap music bet. every ball and can be ignored and fixed easily.
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
I don't know if it's the same in other cities, but in Melbourne the international one-dayers are being advertised as 'Summer's Biggest Dress-up Party' with a DJ set from Basement Jaxx. If you squint at the posters and print ads you can just about make out an image of a couple of cricketers loitering at the bottom.
Kasey
Guest
MJ: It is interesting to note that in any adverts for the BBL, I don’t recall any mention of the game being played(that being 'cricket' allegedly) Is that a deliberate direction away from the 'boring' world of Test Match cricket? Or is it because it only slightly resembles cricket if you squint and watch a game hyped up on speed? All adverts I have seen refer to 'showtime' but I thought that was a movie channel on my foxtel package?
Mango Jack
Guest
Big Bash League. Even its name says the promoters see it as a trivial excercise in sensationalism. Perfect forum for an ageing star like Warne with his comical bravado and staged confrontations. Will it be around in 3 years time? Will anyone remember or care if it isn't?