The Oval that Shane Warne made his home

The brilliant cricket career of the late Shane Warne is one of those amazing stories of a short and fat boy from St Kilda here who started as an opening batsman before becoming a leg spin legend says cricketerturned administrator Shaun GrafldquoHe was just one of those amazing stories We did not expect someone coming through as a young tubby fellow to go on and play for Victoria Australia and be such a legend of Australian cricket and probably the next best cricketer after Sir Don Bradmanrdquo said Graf in a casual conversation with visiting Indian scribes at Cricket Victoriarsquos headquarters Junction OvalThe spin king shockingly passed away aged 52 on March 4 after suffering a heart attack while holidaying in ThailandCricket Victoriarsquos General Manager Cricket Performance Shaun Graf addresses the team before start of Day Five of the Sheffield Shield final against Western Australia at the WACA in Perth on April 4 PicGetty ImagesGraf who represented his country in 11 ODIs and also played against the likes of Indian legends Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath in the early 1980s later turned into a respected cricket administrator donning a variety of hats before retiring as Cricket Victoriarsquos General ManagerCricket Performance after a threedecadelong stintldquoHe came here as a very wideeyed young fellow He was a batsman and as a matter of fact opened the batting He used to come here park his car with his music blasting and we always knew when he arrived at the ground We did not think he would go to the next levelldquoBut one thing he had was he could turn the ball big and that is something that stood out And he certainly knew the game He actually set his field and understood how to get people out That was a major plus for him The whole career he was aggressive but he also understood how to set the players up and get them outrdquo Graf explained about how the teenaged batsman shifted roles and became an alltime leg spinning great with a bagful of 708 and 293 wickets in Tests and ODIsGraf among the selected mourners at Warnersquos private funeral described how the sudden demise of the cricket great was received at his home ground here during a matchldquoWe were hit pretty hard here We were playing a game here and at the end of the days play surrounded the wicket had his jumper sang the club song with his shirt draped over the stumps It was pretty hard I went to his private funeral and it was pretty sadrdquoAlthough Warne had played 50 games for St Kilda he did not secure a fifer as a bowler but made a hundred in that phaseldquoHe played over 50 games for St Kilda he had no fivefor but had got a hundred The wickets were all oneday twoday pitches so spin does not come to play as much as for four and fiveday matches Itrsquos a different ball gamerdquo said Graf about the Junction Oval where Australiarsquos well known Sheffield Shield matches are also being held regularly other than Big Bash League and Womenrsquos Big Bash League fixturesTo honour the memory of Warne a stand is being named after him which is adjacent to the Bert Ironmonger StandldquoWe are going through the process and the far stand we are going to call it Shane Warne stand We were going to put in for that before he died I had spoken to him about it The MCG Melbourne Cricket Club named a stand after him and this will also be the Shane Warne standldquoI had actually spoke to him about that naming it as the Shane Warne stand I asked him lsquodo you want the Shane Warne Stand the SK Warne or Shane Keith Warnersquo and he said lsquoI just want the Shane Warne Standrsquo and thats why they named it the Shane Warne Stand at the MCGldquoUnderneath the old stand that is going to be the Shane Warne Stand a lot of memorabilia will be put up The government will fund us CA Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria will give 10 million Australian dollars and the government will give 25 million We are going to put lights there at the ground which was refurbished in 2017rdquoAlso ReadShane Warne 19692022 King of spin out