Legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne torments South African batsman Daryll Cullinan by bowling him during a Test match at the MCG in 1997.
CRICKET
Shane Warne vs Daryll Cullinan
Given that Shane Warne took 708 Test wickets and another 293 in international 50-over cricket, it’s fair to say he had the edge over most of the batsmen he came up against. But when Aussie cricket fans ponder Warne’s ability to dominate opponents, one name almost inevitably comes up: Daryll Cullinan.
In the mid-1990s Warne and Cullinan emerged as two of the most talented young cricketers on the planet, and between 1993 and 2000 they went head-to-head in some of the most riveting Tests and limited-overs matches played during the past three decades. The problem for Cullinan was that his confrontations with Warne usually ended with the Aussie leg-spinner celebrating as the South African trudged back to the pavilion with only a handful of runs to his name. In all, Warne dismissed Cullinan four times in Tests matches and on eight occasions in one-dayers. Their rivalry was largely one-sided, yet it remained utterly captivating.
A brash and combative player, Cullinan was a batting prodigy in his youth. He made his first-class debut for his province, Border, at the age of 16 in 1983, and soon became the youngest batsman to make a century in South Africa’s premier domestic competition. Cullinan was subsequently lumped with the tag ‘the next Graeme Pollock’, which is akin to an Australian youngster being branded the next Don Bradman.
At that time, South Africa was banned from international sport because of its policy of apartheid, so many of Cullinan’s talented countrymen – players such as Kepler Wessels, Alan Lamb and Robin Smith – went to England or Australia to try their luck. But Cullinan stayed at home, dominating the local bowlers during stints with Impalas, Western Province and Transvaal, and setting more records – including the highest ever first-class score in South Africa at the time, 337 not out.
South Africa was welcomed back into international cricket in time for the 1992 World Cup. Cullinan was overlooked for that tournament but made his Test debut the following year against India at Cape Town, scoring 46 in his first knock. He averaged 47 in his first six innings – an impressive start that included his first Test century, which he scored against Sri Lanka on a turning pitch at Colombo in September 1993. Cullinan’s effort in taming Sri Lanka’s tweakers – a line-up that included a young Muttiah Muralitharan – demonstrated that he had the ability hold his nerve against top-class spinners. But his reputation was soon dented by his first round of battles against Shane Warne.
Cullinan faced Australia’s spin king for the first time in the opening match of the 1993–94 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup, which took place on a balmy night at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Having knocked over the Aussies for 189 (Michael Slater top-scored on debut with a whirlwind 73 off 69 balls), South Africa was in a very strong position by the time Cullinan strode to the crease. Although the visitors needed only 46 more runs to win, the 60,000 people in attendance remained in full voice, hoping that Warne, the home-town hero, would produce another miracle.
Since making a rather lacklustre debut against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the summer of 1991–92 (his figures in his first Test were 1 for 150), Warne had emerged as one of the hottest stars in the game, single-handedly reviving the supposedly lost art of leg-spin bowling by bamboozling batsmen the world over. Among his many highlights were his match-winning haul of 7 for 52 against the West Indies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in late 1992, and his first ball in a Test on English soil – a sharply turning leg-break that bowled English batsman Mike Gatting and subsequently became known simply as the Gatting ball.
The big crowd roared as Cullinan took guard and prepared to face Warne for the first time. He nervously survived three deliveries, as the Australians stepped up the pressure with a verbal attack, before Warne decided to unleash one of his trademark variations. The ball, nicknamed the flipper, pitched around middle stump. Cullinan expected it to curve towards the off side, like a typical leg break, but instead it veered straight ahead and crashed into his stumps. Warne saluted the Aussie fans as Cullinan, out for a duck, shook his head in dismay. South Africa ended up winning the match with eight balls to spare, thanks largely to Hansie Cronje’s unbeaten 91. But Warne had put his first dent in Cullinan’s mental armour. Their rivalry was on.
When Cullinan lined up against Australia in a Test match for the first time – it was the 1993 Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground – he avoided a confrontation with Warne because he fell cheaply to fast bowler Craig McDermott early in his team’s only innings; the game was marred by rain. But in the New Year Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground the following week, Cullinan found himself taking on Warne on a spin-friendly track; it was during this game that Warne cast his spell over the talented South African.
Cullinan survived just 11 balls and made nine runs in the first innings before Warne bowled him with a perfectly placed flipper. In South Africa’s second innings he managed only two runs off 13 deliveries before Warne trapped him lbw with another slider. Warne finished the match with ten wickets, yet it was Cullinan and his mates who were celebrating at the end after Australia lost 9 for 60 in their second dig and crashed to a five-run defeat.
Cullinan wasn’t smiling for long. When the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup resumed in January, he endured a horror run. Previously such a composed player, he suddenly seemed unsure of himself; the low points of his involvement in the tournament came when part-time bowlers Mark Waugh and Allan Border knocked him over during the preliminary games.
In the second final, played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, a match South Africa had to win to take the competition to a deciding game, Cullinan arrived at the crease with his team at 3 for 102, chasing 248 for victory. The stage was set for Cullinan to make a stand. He poked and prodded his way to three runs off 12 balls, but with Warne working the sell-out crowd into a frenzy, the pressure grew by the minute. Warne was at the peak of his powers, and his various deliveries had taken on cult status, with the flipper garnering the greatest reputation. That night at the Sydney Cricket Ground countless Aussie fans waved blow-up dolphins and held banners extolling the virtues of the flipper. Try as he might, Cullinan couldn’t survive. His 13th ball, delivered by Warne, took the outside edge of his bat and flew to Steve Waugh in the slips. Warne had done it again.
Cullinan spoke to the website Cricinfo in 2007 about his approach to batting against spin:
It’s one of the first things you tell a kid: watch the ball. But it’s probably the last thing on most professional players’ minds. I know this was something I did not pay much attention to, and that cost me dearly. When I think of my first-class days, we had only one spinner who was playing first-class cricket – Denys Hobson, who was a genuine leg-spinner, and he had recently retired. And we had Alan Kourie, who was basically a left-arm roller. Other than that we had mostly finger-spinners. Wrist-spin was something we never completely understood, and I think that’s what distinguished the better players from the others – the ability to watch the ball completely out of the hand and then play accordingly.
After his miserable run in the one-day matches against Australia, Cullinan then failed twice in the Third Test, which was played in Adelaide in late January, although Steve Waugh and Craig McDermott combined to dismiss him rather than Warne.
Warne’s next chance to torment Cullinan came when Australia and South Africa took part in a triangular one-day tournament in Pakistan in October 1994. Cullinan went into the series with renewed confidence, having recently made 99 runs in two limited-overs innings in England. He had also made a stylish 94 in a Test against the English at the Oval. But after making just 12 against the Aussies in the first game, in Lahore, he fell to Warne yet again when the teams next did battle in Peshawar. Once again, it was a straight ball that did the trick, with Warne bowling Cullinan before he had scored.
Three months later, in February 1995, South Africa took on Australia in another one-dayer on neutral territory, the venue on this occasion being the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand. For Cullinan, the game was another disaster. His seventh ball was a leg-break from Warne, and he lunged forward to try to nudge it into the off side. As the ball swerved past his bat, he stumbled forward and found himself out of his crease. Quick as a flash, Aussie wicketkeeper Ian Healy gloved the ball and whipped the bails off. Cullinan was out – stumped Healy, bowled Warne – for a duck.
At least Cullinan had something to laugh about when he went home to South Africa and spent some time playing for Transvaal in the local first-class competition. Cullinan was batting in a game at Paarl when he hit fellow international player Roger Telemachus for six. The ball crashed into a food stand and was eventually found in a frying pan full of sizzling calamari. As was noted in the 1996 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack: ‘It was about ten minutes before the ball was cool enough for the umpires to remove the grease. Even then, [the bowler] was unable to grip the ball and it had to be replaced.’
Cullinan at last made an impression against Australia in the Titan Cup, which was held in India in late 1996; he made 71 not out and 43 not out. Yet it seemed that the key reason for Cullinan’s success was the absence of Warne, who missed the tournament due to an injury. Everything changed when Warne returned to the Australian team for its tour to South Africa in February–April 1997.
Cullinan went into the Test series in great form, having made a stylish 122 not out against India in the weeks before Australia’s arrival. He made a painstaking 27 off 73 balls in the first innings, then fell for a duck – caught Healy, bowled Warne – in his second dig. The Aussie press began delighting in referring to Cullinan as Warne’s number-one bunny – the term being an extension of a poor performer often being called a ‘rabbit’. Cullinan didn’t get out to Warne again during the remainder of the Test series, but that was his only consolation.
He finally enjoyed a win over Warne in the first match of the seven-game one-day series that followed the Tests. He survived numerous flippers and sharply turning leg-breaks and made 85 not out, guiding South Africa to a six-wicket victory. Although Warne dismissed him in two of the matches, that series proved to be Cullinan’s finest period against Australia. He made four half-centuries, including a best knock of 89. That was a rare occasion when the champion leggie had to admit he’d been beaten by his bunny.
Warne and Cullinan renewed their rivalry when South Africa toured Australia in the summer of 1997–98. In the lead-up to the arrival of the South Africans, an Aussie newspaper ran a double-page feature in which it stated that Cullinan had been so scarred by his past failures against Warne that he was seeking therapy. ‘I couldn’t believe it,’ Warne later wrote in Shane Warne: My Autobiography. ‘I knew Daryll was a bit fragile at times, but never imagined he would go to a shrink to learn how to read a googly.’
When Cullinan was interviewed for a feature story in Adelaide’s Sunday Mail in 2007, he said the matter had been ‘blown all out of proportion. It wasn’t a case of going to see someone. The fact is that I had a relationship with a sport psychologist who played a massive role in my career from day one. [But] suddenly, someone jumped on the bandwagon and said: “He’s going for special treatment. [Warne] has put him on the couch.”’
The first battle between Warne and Cullinan during that summer took place in an early match of the one-day series. South Africa batted first, and Cullinan made a composed 33 before being run out. Australia struggled early in its chase, and South African captain Hansie Cronje decided to give Cullinan a bowl. Sending down some rather innocuous off-breaks, Cullinan dismissed Aussie wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist caught and bowled. He then enjoyed one of his greatest moments against the Australians when he trapped Warne leg before wicket. Cullinan celebrated long and hard as Warne trudged back to the pavilion. South Africa went on to win the game.
The pair’s next meeting took place during the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the first match of a three-Test series. Having enjoyed such a great record against Cullinan, Warne now relentlessly sledged him every time they crossed paths in a game. But the South African often fought back, as his former teammate Allan Donald recalled in a television feature produced by Fox Sports in 2012. Donald recalled an incident in which Cullinan sledged Warne while the Australian was batting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. ‘I remember Warnie, at the end of the over, walked with Daryll across the pitch and said to him: “Mate, if I were you I’d zip it because when you come into bat it’s going to be the same old, same old,”’ Donald said.
But Cullinan never backed down, as the much-quoted events that took place during the 1997 Boxing Day Test attest. Never the skinniest of men, the Aussie spinner had been battling weight issues during the previous months, although his portly appearance had not reduced his confidence. The legendary tale goes like this: when Cullinan strode out to bat in the first innings, Warne turned to him and said that he’d been waiting a long time to embarrass him again in a Test match. Cullinan is said to have retorted, ‘Looks like you spent it eating.’
Cullinan likes to play down the story. ‘That was actually a bit of mixed reporting,’ he told the Sunday Mail in 2007. ‘At the time I was batting with Gary Kirsten and we had a chuckle about it, but I was attributed to the comments.’ Nevertheless, the sledge has become part of cricketing folklore.
As so often happened, however, Warne had the last laugh, bowling Cullinan for a duck during the final innings of the match; the previous two balls had spun past his reaching bat. Cullinan was subsequently dropped for the following Test in Sydney. In fact, he never played another Test against Australia. ‘For such a good batsman against other countries, and a bloke with a triple-hundred in first-class cricket to his name, I have never figured out his problem against us,’ Warne wrote in his autobiography. ‘He is an intense, prickly guy, and I can only imagine he developed a bit of a phobia.’
Cullinan’s former teammate Fanie de Villiers had his say in the aforementioned Fox Sports television feature. ‘The fact [Cullinan] talked back was the wrong choice,’ de Villiers said. ‘He’s a clever guy but [that] wasn’t very clever. That got hold of him and that became too much for him in the end.’
Cullinan himself has never publicly expressed any bitterness towards his adversary. ‘[Warne] was too good for me in terms of Test cricket,’ Cullinan added in the Sunday Mail interview in 2007. ‘I thought I played him a lot better in one-day cricket, which has been overlooked. But one thing I can always say about him is it never was nasty. There were the mind games and subtle sledging but often where people got it wrong was that it was never, ever nasty. If you spend time with him off the field, you like him. That’s the kind of guy he is. He’s certainly not a vindictive cricketer. He’s actually quite a nice guy.’
Cullinan played eight more one-dayers for South Africa against the Aussies. In one, a Carlton & United Series match at the WACA ground in Perth, he made the most of Warne’s absence by making 35 not out and helping guide South Africa to a seven-wicket win.
But when Warne returned for the first final of that series, played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, normal transmission resumed: after opening the batting, Cullinan was stumped Healy, bowled Warne for 26. The one positive for Cullinan was that his team won a brilliant game by six runs, which meant South Africa needed just one more victory to win the tournament. However, Australia fought back to win the second final during which Warne was involved in Cullinan’s dismissal again, taking a catch from Mark Waugh’s part-time off-spin. Cullinan was then dropped for the third final. He watched from the stands as South Africa attacked the game in typically combative style but fell 14 runs short at the finish.
In June 1999 Cullinan and Warne went head-to-head during the crucial Super Six match between South Africa and Australia at the World Cup in England. South Africa batted first, and Cullinan made a stylish 50 before he fell to his nemesis yet again, bowled. Still, Cullinan’s knock helped his team put together a very competitive total of 271. Australia had to win the game to stay in the tournament: it was a heroic knock of 120 not out from skipper Steve Waugh that enabled the Aussies to keep their dream of taking out the tournament alive.
The result also meant South Africa and Australia met in a semi-final four days later. The Aussies looked in all sorts of trouble when they were bowled out for 213. But Cullinan was one of many South African batsmen who failed to handle the pressure in the run chase. As it turned out, his wicket wasn’t taken by Warne – he was run out instead. Yet Warne proved Australia’s hero, taking 4 for 29 off his ten overs as the game ended in a tie, which meant the Aussies progressed to the final, thanks to their previous victory over the South Africans.
According to Warne, he and Cullinan had their first meaningful discussion after that famous game. Warne wrote in his autobiography. ‘It was a bit uneasy. As we exchanged shirts he said: “I expect this will take pride of place in the bunny’s section.” I just laughed at him and said it would go on the wall with the others. I would never humiliate a guy and if you look at Daryll’s record against other countries he is a very talented batsman. Once you get to know him he is OK.’
The last time Cullinan took on Warne was when South Africa travelled to Australia for a three-game one-day series at Melbourne’s new Docklands stadium in August 2000. Cullinan was not dismissed by Warne in any of the matches, yet his misery against the Aussies continued. He made 29 in the first contest, then failed to score in games two and three. In the second match he was caught by Warne off the bowling of Andrew Symonds.
Cullinan’s international playing career came to an end in 2001. Having made 14 Test centuries, including a top score of 275 (which was the highest score made by a South African in Test cricket at the time), he finished up with a Test average of 44.21. But in his seven Tests against Australia he made only 153 runs at 12.75. He fared a little better in one-day cricket, averaging 32.6 against Australia, compared to 33 against all opponents.
Statistically, the rivalry between Warne and Cullinan was nothing to get too excited about. Warne knocked over Cullinan only four times in Test cricket, a number that pales to insignificance when compared to the stranglehold that Australian paceman Glenn McGrath had over England batsman Mike Atherton. McGrath dismissed Atherton on 19 occasions in Test matches, their one-sided rivalry contributing to Australia’s domination of the Ashes series during the 1990s and early 2000s. Yet the battles between McGrath and Atherton never quite captured the public’s imagination like Warne versus Cullinan.
Despite their fierce rivalry, Cullinan and Warne have since crossed paths on a number of occasions over the past decade. Cullinan told Cricinfo in 2004: ‘He was guest of honour at my benefit dinner banquet during the World Cup in South Africa [in 2003]. He stole the show and was a great credit to the game. Quite simply, Warne was too good for me. In hindsight, the focus on me was a compliment. I, however, only caught on towards the end that I did not do the simplest of things well – and that is watch the ball out of the hand. But by then it was too late.’
Warne summed up his rivalry with Cullinan in his book Shane Warne: My Illustrated Career, published in 2006. Under a picture of him bowling Cullinan for a duck at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1997, Warne wrote: ‘I gave him a terrible time down the years. He set himself up for a fall with his sledging from slip but when he batted, things got worse and worse. At one point he went to a psychiatrist to help deal with leg-spin. I hope for his sake he played it better from the couch.’
SHANE WARNE vs DARYLL CULLINAN, TEST CRICKET
Shane Warne
Team: Australia
International career span: 1992–2007
Test matches played: 145
Test wickets: 708
Test bowling average: 25.41
Best Test figures: 8 for 71 vs England, 1994
ODI matches played: 194
ODI wickets: 293
ODI bowling average: 25.73
Best ODI figures: 5 for 33 vs West Indies, 1996
Daryll Cullinan
Team: South Africa
International career span: 1993–2000
Test matches played: 70
Test runs: 4554
Test batting average: 44.21
Test average versus Australia: 12.75
Highest Test score: 275* vs New Zealand, 1999 (* denotes not out)
ODI matches played: 138
ODI runs: 3860
ODI batting average: 32.99
Highest ODI score: 124 vs Pakistan, 1996