Australian cricket legend Shane Warne yesterday threw his support behind a musical stage show that presents a warts-and-all account of his controversy-laced career.
The bowler lashed out at the show’s producers when they announced plans for Shane Warne — The Musical earlier this year, believing they should have sought his permission before proceeding.
But Warne said he decided to see the musical for himself before it opened in his hometown of Melbourne this week and was pleasantly surprised at the tenor of the production starring comedian Eddie Perfect as the wayward spinner.
LARRIKIN SIDE
“I think Eddie and his team have written the musical in a respectful and sympathetic way, and that they have captured my fun, larrikin [lovable rogue] side,” Warne wrote in the Herald Sun newspaper yesterday.
The show has been promoted as “a new breed of Aussie music theater that smokes, drinks, carries a few extra kilos and still brings home the Ashes.”
With songs such as What an SMS I’m In, it does not shy away from the sex, betting, drug and mobile phone scandals that plagued Warne during a stellar career that saw him take 708 Test wickets, the second-highest tally in history.
A FEW BEERS
His management arranged for him to attended a preview and, true to form, Warne said he steeled himself with a few beers before watching the performance from the back row of the theater.
“I am suddenly very nervous. More edgy, even, than facing Pakistani quickie Shoaib Akhtar on a green, seaming deck, I reckon,” Warne said of his feelings at seeing his life depicted on stage.
The 39-year-old said the show’s opening sequences were funny, even though it was “weird” watching actors recreate his early career.
“My life in two hours has just flashed before my eyes. Again I felt weird but, in a strange way, proud of what I’d just witnessed,” he added, declaring himself happy with the depiction of his ex-wife and mother.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but