Warne’s gone but some googlies remain

All of which suggest that there’s more to Warne’s departure — if only for the moment — than meets the eye.

Warne was told about the drug test result on the morning of their first match. That couldn’t have been the ACB’s original plan, so why did it pan out like that? How would it benefit Australian cricket by upsetting the team composition after it has gone to South Africa?

A few theories can be put forward. One, Warne is part of the old order — the Steve Waugh Brigade, if you will — in Australian cricket. Ponting is a younger man, made captain over more senior members of the side. There is no evidence to suggest that there is any rift in the ranks, but the idea is not terribly far-fetched.

Much before the world cup started, senior cricket writer Christopher Martin-Jenkins had suggested that Warne might be sidelined, gradually, even though he was in his last leg in international cricket. “The Australian selectors have bitten the bullet by dropping the Waugh brothers when they could quite easily have played in this World Cup and done well. I think, for starters, we will now witness Stuart MacGill and Bradley Hogg taking over, irrespective of Warne’s form.”

It’s worked out that way, though under circumstances even CMJ couldn’t have foreseen. The inclusion of Hogg — who’s been batting better than he’s bowling — does seem odd given that Warne, officially, was fit to play the entire tournament.

There’s also the Ponting factor. When it was put to him by a reporter, immediately after Warne’s departure from South Africa, that the leg-spinner might have been naive, his captain replied: ‘‘Or stupid’’.

Today, when asked for his reaction, Ponting reverted to ‘‘naive’’ mode and added that the spinner had learnt a ‘‘hard lesson’’.

A year is a long time in cricket. It leaves ample scope for MacGill, Hogg and others to cement a position in the side. A comeback for Warne, a year later at 34, could be well nigh impossible. Some questions have come up. A few more are bound to depending on the sequence of events from here on in.