It is 30 years on Sunday since Shane Warne bowled Mike Gatting on the leg-spinner’s Ashes debut. The moments before the fateful ball were inauspicious to say the least, writes DANIEL CHERNY.
Those were the words Shane Warne is said to have uttered moments before he delivered what is probably the most storied ball in cricket history.
Sunday will mark the 30th anniversary of The Gatting Ball.
Eponymous for its victim, Warne’s first trundle in Test cricket on English soil was the stuff of almost instant folklore.
The Sunday Times’ Robin Marlar dubbed it “the ball of the century”.
“Warney bowled 20 of those,” says the man who brought Warne into the attack that day at Old Trafford, then veteran Australian captain Allan Border, before beginning to list some of other Warne’s greatest hits (Shiv Chanderpaul, Richie Richardson, Andrew Strauss etc.)
Why then was this one SUCH a big deal? Brendon Julian, who was on Test debut at Manchester, notes that Warne’s irresistible leg-break ticked most boxes.
It wasn’t just that it was an almost perfect leg-break, pitching outside leg and taking the off stump.
It wasn’t just that it was Warne’s first ever ball in Ashes cricket.
It wasn’t just that it was against the visibly gobsmacked Mike Gatting, renowned as an exquisite player of spin.
It was all of the above and more.
The ball of the century’s victim and artist side by side. Picture: Phil Noble/PA Images via Getty Images
Warne had already been a Test cricketer for 17 months when the 1993 Ashes began. Manchester marked his 12th Test. He was fresh-faced, but even if this was a time before ubiquitous visual analysis, it wasn’t exactly pre-television.
There was footage available of Warne.
But he had held something back during the pre-series tour matches (fans of a younger vintage may be surprised to read that such things existed).
Warne had bowled within himself during the warm-up fixtures against his will. Border knew he had a rare talent on his hands and didn’t want England getting too good a look before the main event.
“We had this unknown. But he’d shown signs at that point. He got a great seven-for against the West Indies in Melbourne. I thought he could have a really big role for us going forward. I wasn’t thinking 700 Test wickets, but I thought we had something special,” Border recalls.
“I was talking to Warnie along the lines that ‘in these early games, particularly if we play against guys that we think we’re going to play an Ashes Test match against, don’t show them all your tricks’.
“I remember one game we were at Worcester and Graeme Hick was playing. He carted us all over the place. Warnie bowled a little bit to him and he got belted all over the place. And he kept looking at me and I said ‘just settle down’. He was absolutely spewing.
“I told him ‘you just get your rhythm and see if there are any chinks there that you can expose later’. I was trying to keep him under wraps, because I thought we had something special there.”
Allan Border always knew Australia had something special in Shane Warne.
So to Old Trafford. Australia was sent in. Julian was picked for his first Test after winning a narrow and late selection call with spinner Tim May.
“In the team meeting, we hadn’t picked the 12th man but it was sort of indicated it would probably be me,” Julian says.
“AB went out to toss the coin, he just walked past Maysie and I, looked at both of us and just went, ‘oh BJ, you play.’ That was my introduction to my first Test.
“That Test series was all about Graeme Hick and Craig McDermott, two big heavyweights going head-to-head. There was a lot of talk in the press. Warney, no one even talked about.”
Mike Gatting and Ian Healy in the aftermath of Shane Warne’s ball of the century. Picture: Steve Lindsell/Getty Images
With Mark Taylor making a century and fellow opener Michael Slater reaching 58 on Test debut, Australia was well-placed for a big first innings total at 1-183 before English tweaker Peter Such, another debutant, ran through the Aussies, who were bowled out for 289 early on day two.
Graham Gooch and Mike Atherton put on 71 for England’s opening stand before Atherton edged one from Merv Hughes. Still, the hosts were in control when Border turned to his leggie.
“England started and they were going along alright,” Border says.
“Gooch was a very good player of spin and so was Gatt. So I was trying to keep (Warne) out of the action until we got a few more wickets, but it wasn’t to be.
“He was a bit nervous but looking forward to the challenge.
“I went into a short cover because the ball was just sticking in the pitch a bit, and I thought that might be an area for a catch.
“(It was) not an overly attacking field.”
Mike Gatting looks back at his stumps in shock after being bowled by Shane Warne. Picture: PA Images via Getty Images
Julian had already sent down five overs of his own as a first-change bowler. He remembers that the moments before the fateful ball were inauspicious to say the least.
“I was at mid-on. And I remember it was pretty cold,” Julian says.
“And he was going, ‘f*** mate, how cold is it here?’ He had the big jumper on, and I remember saying to him something like, ‘mate, you’re not going to bowl with that jumper on are you?’
“He took the jumper off. Typically Warney, he played it down like ‘hopefully I can just sort of get this up there on a length.’
“I remember him warming up to me, and he was sort of rolling his arm over and he could barely get his bloody arm over.”
To the ball itself. If you are reading this and haven’t seen it, you would be in the extreme minority. Various clips of the delivery have been viewed more than three million times on YouTube. That might only be the tip of the iceberg.
Those behind the wicket knew how good it was straight away. For Border and Julian, it took a fraction longer.
“I was short cover but you could actually hear the fizz of the ball coming out of Warney’s hands,” Border says.
“I’m at short cover, so I don’t really see how good a ball it was.
“Heals (wicketkeeper Ian Healy) is going on, ‘what a ripper.’ (Mark) Tubby Taylor (at slip) goes ‘you wait until you see the replay.’
“I’m thinking they’re just excited. And then I saw the replay and I thought ‘bloody hell, that is as good as it gets.’
“(It) was the most perfect leg-spinner you could ever bowl.
“Straight away you could feel the game just changed. It’s a strange thing to say around one ball.”
Shane Warne celebrates the first of his 195 Ashes wickets. Picture: Rui Vieira/PA Images via Getty Images
Julian laughs about how Warne’s brilliance put what should have been the West Australian’s moment starkly into the shade.
“I didn’t actually see it hit the off-stump. Because I was at mid-on, and you know it obviously pitched leg stump,” Julian says.
“They just kept replaying it and replaying it and replaying it.
“I think I got my first Test wicket (soon after), and no one even congratulated me for my first Test wicket because they kept showing bloody Warney bowling Gatt.”
Gatting was the first of Warne’s eight victims for the match, and 195 – easily a record – in Ashes contests.
Australia won the Test by 179 runs, setting the tone for a 4-1 series win. Not until 2005 would Warne play a part in a losing Ashes series and even then he was irrepressible.
This anniversary would been significant in any case. That it comes only 15 months after Warne’s tragic and untimely death adds a sense of poignancy to the milestone.
By the end of the decade Warne had been named one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the century. And he still had more than half a decade of international cricket left in him. Even in retirement he was rarely far from the headlines.
As recently as 2021-22, he was still a prominent voice on the Fox Ashes broadcast.
He may have been retired for well over a decade before his death, but there is an argument to say this is the first Ashes series without Warne since before the Gatting ball.
Says Border: “He was just was special. Kissed by a fairy. ”