The Hurling Final in 2005 barely broke 80k in Croker.
Cricket Fever had hit this country in a big way.
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Warne must have been one of the most widely known cricketers ever. In terms of household name status the only comparable figure I can think of is Ian Botham. And Botham is a twat. Everybody instinctively liked Warne. Viv Richards perhaps but I think his fame is a slight notch down. Flintoff in England but his folk hero status was more fleeting than Botham’s.
I don’t think other figures who were greats like Lara, Tendulkar, Steve Waugh etc. would have been known to the ordinary non-cricket punter on the street like Warne was. Nor would other Australian greats of the era like Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting.
I think he was comparable to somebody like Seve Ballesteros in his impact on the wider sporting world. Somebody whose impact went beyond their sport and who was recognised as carrying a mercurial genius anybody could appreciate. You can’t say that about a lot of cricketers.
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Warne was able to mix being a Jack the lad, party boy, with being a naturally gifted, fearsome competitor.
Maradonna would be a good comparison I would say in a sporting context.
When he came on the scene in the '93 Ashes, his impact was genuinely explosive. It was immediately apparent that Australia had unleashed the cricketing equivalent of the atomic bomb, the full finished article of cricket genius, that he could do stuff that nobody else in the world could. It was mesmerising. And he looked the part like Liam Gallagher did when Oasis emerged. He looked like an outsider gatecrashing the entire establishment. He had that idol quality to him. He was cool as fuck.
He transcended sport.
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And hair restoration
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I think of that era of Australian cricket as the 1989 Ashes to the 2006-07 Ashes.
The 1989 Ashes was the first time I properly watched cricket. I thought of Steve Waugh as the man above men. He was knocking in 200 not outs for fun and in my head I metaphorically had him down as Liverpool’s Steve McMahon, taking no shit from the soft southern English Tories, who the television coverage were telling me were all going to be banned soon because they were going on a banned series to South Africa. I had Australia down as the good guys. David Boon, Allan Border and Merv Hughes seemed like men you would aspire to be. My fandom for that Australian team led to me organising impromptu games of cricket on the street to replace the regular football games, with the pillar separating our house’s driveway from the neighbours serving as the wicket.
I also became a fervent viewer of English county one day cricket, especially the Nat West Trophy semi-finals, when coverage would switch between the two venues at which the semi-finals were simultaneously taking place (in 1989 it was Warwickshire v Worcestershire at Edgbaston - Allan Donald destroyed the Worcestershire batting line up - and Hampshire v somebody at Southampton).
My all time between 1989 and 2007 Australian line up, containing two wicketkeepers, is as follows:
Mark Waugh
Mark Taylor
David Boon
Ricky Ponting
Allan Border
Steve Waugh
Adam Gilchrist
Ian Healy
Shane Warne
Merv Hughes
Glenn McGrath
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I think he was a Warwickshire journey man whose name escapes me. He was on the field more than off it.
Gary something.
Pratt.
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Boon and Merv Hughes. Two larger than life characters
I always found that a quirky aspect of England’s home series. They’d name a squad of 12 or 13, and maybe only finalise the team after checking conditions on the morning of the first day and after the toss. Assuming the traditional Thursday morning start, the 1 or 2 left out would invariably be driven then to wherever their counties were playing and the substitute fielder would be one of these local lads. He wouldn’t even be a starter for his county team, as the county matches always took place alongside the tests. So he’d usually be a second team chap or a very young lad, but a specialist fielder. Notwithstanding that, I always thought it was kinda odd that the pressure of fielding in an Ashes test would be thrust upon effectively a nobody. I know it worked a treat in the case of Ponting’s run out but imagine a kid having to head into the dressing room after spilling an easy and game defining catch. Although I actually can’t remember that happening either to be fair. 
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Boon holds the record (or held the record) for the amount drank on a flight from London to Sydney. Merv the Swerve used to lick the cricket ball. Impervious to whatever shit and pesticides it had picked up off the grass during the day.
Terry Alderman was a great bowler of the 80s as well.
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He was also a cunt because he took the money and toured South Africa. Twice.
I would have classed that Aussie cricket team of the 90s and 2000s with Alex Ferguson’s Man United side of the same vintage. Hard not to have a grudging respect for them and their ability to steamroll teams when they hit their stride.
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I note the poetic licence in selecting two wicket keepers and only three frontline bowlers, although the Waugh brothers and Border too (I think) could bowl a bit of medium swing.
I wouldn’t have your encyclopaedic sporting knowledge but I was a weird child (quelle surprise) in that I would head in from headers and volleys to watch the conclusion of a TdeF mountain stage. Other pals used to attend these organised summer camps and/or be sent to the gaelteacht so I got into cricket in a big way one summer when I was around 11. It might actually have been the summer of 1993, just before I scored all the points for Faythe Harriers in the victorious U12 county final.
You had that terrific theme tune for BBC’s test cricket coverage and Tony Lewis presenting the coverage. Wonderful times. England were invariably shit. Gooch, Gower, Robin Smith, Gatting and these lads trying to score runs but being knocked over by Ambrose and Walsh, the aforementioned Merv Hughes, Akram and Younis etc. Jack Russell with his idiosyncratic ways behind the stumps. They’d have a new hope every once in a while like Graeme Hick or Mark Ramprakash but they’d never fully deliver on the potential shown in the county championship.
Their bowling attack was usually lame in comparison to whoever was touring, but they were always eager to christen the next Botham when anyone showed a bit of all round potential. Darren Gough was one such player before ultimately being a specialist bowler in reality. You had lads like Andy Caddick and the wayward Devin Malcolm, drug mule Chris Lewis, journeymen like Gus Fraser and they always had shite spinners. They’d usually be losing a series 2-0 or 3-0 when out of nowhere Malcolm would produce a devastating spell and they’d claim a consolation win.
Cricket was page 340 on Ceefax. Test match scorecards on 341, report on 342 and then all the county games from 343 upwards. Oh today is a devastating blow for cricket and sport.
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Dominic Cork was another medium paced bowler and Robert Croft and of course Tuffers providing the spin.
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Is there any word on circumstances of his death? “Heart attack on boys holiday in Koh Samui” has a weird air to it
Soul Limbo by Booker T and the MGs on Stax records was the BBC theme tune for the Cricket @Bandage.
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