"He revived leg-spin, thought to be extinct, and is now pre-eminent in a game so transformed that we sometimes wonder where the next champion fast bowlers will come from."
- CricketArchive Staff Reporter, from Cricketarchive's player profile of Shane Warne, 17.4.09
Well, not quite. If you want proof that the Wrist-Spin Era of Australian Cricket has returned to hibernation, look no further than the Cricket Australia contracted players' list for 2009-10.
Shane Warne's four-over-per-game bowling-captain-coaching stint is over for another (and probably last) year, and Stuart MacGill is doing nicely thank you with his own wine show on the Lifestyle Food channel. The number of specialist wrist-spinners under Cricket Australia contract from July 1? Zero.
Of the twenty-five players on the list there's only left-armer Simon Katich and right-handed Cameron White. Outstanding as an opening batsman for Australia these days but dreadfully underbowled, Katich has taken 18 wickets in 38 Tests at an average of 29.61. Six of those wickets came in one innings against Zimbabwe in 2003, and five more in the last two innings of the latest Test series against South Africa.
Beau Casson has come off contract after being basically hung out to dry by the National Socialist Party National Selection Panel. Brought into the Test team after MacGill's abrupt retirement on the 2008 West Indian tour, he took three wickets at 43 at Bridgetown in his debut, and has never been selected for Australia again.
White's Test career was confined to the 2008 series in India, where he was a late replacement for Bryce McGain, whom I shall get to in a tic. White took five wickets at 68.40, and averaged 29.40 with the bat. Better known these days for his achievements in slap-and-tickle cricket, White hasn't even been named in Australia's World T20 squad.
But the great hope of Australian wrist-spin, McGain, has come and gone at the age of 37 with career figures of 18-3-149-0 preserved for posterity.
Shane Warne, his heirs and successors, are gone. The next champion fast bowler has arrived. His name is Mitchell Johnson.
But there's another reason why the Shane Warne Era appears to be over. "Shane Warne The Musical", which began its Sydney season at the Enmore Theatre last Monday, will close on June 7. It has already had a successful five-month run in Melbourne, but now seems unlikely to go on tour.
Reviews of SWTM from the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph, and even Kersi Meher-Homji has pitched in with his observations.