SHANE WARNE

Shane Keith Warne (born 13 September 1969) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer who captained the Australian national team in One Day Internationals (ODI). Widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game,^[1] Warne was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in the 1994 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.^[2]He was the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 1997 (Notional Winner).^[3] He was named Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for the year 2004 in the 2005 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.^[4] In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet and the only one still playing at the time. He officially retired from all formats of cricket in July 2013.^[5]

As well playing internationally Waugh played domestic cricket for his home state of Victoria and English domestic cricket for Hampshire. He was captain of Hampshire for three seasons from 2005 to 2007. Warne played his first Test match in 1992 and took over 1,000 international wickets (in Tests and One-Day Internationals), second to this milestone after Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan. Warne's 708 Test wickets was the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket, until it was broken by Muralitharan on 3 December 2007.^[6] A useful lower-order batsman, Warne is also the only player to have scored more than 3,000 Test runs without a career century.^[7] His career was plagued by scandals off the field, including a ban from cricket for testing positive for a prohibited substance, charges of bringing the game into disrepute by accepting money from bookmakersand sexual indiscretions.

He retired from international cricket in January 2007, at the end of Australia's 5–0 Ashes series victory over England. Three other players integral to the Australian team at the time- Glenn McGrath, Damien Martyn and Justin Langer also retired from Tests at the same time which led some, including the Australian captain Ricky Ponting; to declare it the "end of an era".^[8]

Following his retirement from international cricket, Warne played a full season at Hampshire in 2007. He had been scheduled to appear in the 2008 English cricket season, but in late March 2008 he announced his retirement from playing first-class cricket in order to be able to "spend more time pursuing interests outside of cricket".^[9] He played in the first four seasons (2008-2011) of the Indian Premier League for the Rajasthan Royals, where he played the roles of both captain and coach. He led his team to victory against the Chennai Super Kings in the final of the 2008 season. In February 2018, the Rajasthan Royals appointed Warne as their Team Mentor for the IPL 2018.^[10]

Music a powerful means of communication

English is now a common language around the world, but for thousands of centuries, people from different areas of the world have made contact without sharing much or any common language, and let's face it - many still do. But have you ever thought about the way people communicated long ago, before formal languages even existed? Doesn't that make you think about the different ways in which people may communicate now, even when they do not share a common language? In the early stages of human life, music was probably used more for communication than for pleasure: drums, horns and bells, even the human voice; pitched to carry many miles. Some researchers believe that early forms of human language developed from communication through music, and certainly music continues to fulfil many functions in different cultures today.

We can take a look at nature for one example of how music is used as a form of communication; birds are an excellent example of one of the many living creatures who can communicate by making meaningful, but musical sounds. Birds can "talk" with one another in sophisticated ways even though they do not have the kind of tongue or teeth you need to form words. From the early morning birdsong, that is music to the human ear, which is used for courtship, mating and to establish territories, to the call that there is no mistaking, when one bird warns others of the presence of a dangerous cat or snake. And before you say, that's for the birds, some cultures still use languages, which to the uninitiated would simply sound like whistling and tweeting, for example "El Silbo", a whistled language spoken by the inhabitants of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, it was developed to enable communication across the deep ravines and narrow valleys that radiate through the island, and the best thing is you don't get an "out of range" message when you use it.

Even today, music is one of the few ways in which people can connect with each other without language, it is one way in which cultures can not only identify themselves but also communicate with each other and find common ground. Think of a culture that's very different to your own; one that you have noticed for some reason or other, but don't know very much about. You'll probably get an instant mental picture of the people of that culture and perhaps have some impression of their language, art and music, too. These sights and sounds can leave a deep impression on us. The sights and sounds of a particular culture may affect us without our fully understanding the meaning of their importance within that culture.

Even though we don't always have the time or opportunity to explore the subtleties of the music of another culture, there is always a meaning behind the sounds. Sometimes that meaning is quite basic, at other times, the meaning can be very complex and strongly connected to the beliefs and practices of that culture. For example: there's no mistaking a soothing lullaby whatever the language, or there may be an ice cream van in the neighbourhood which announces its presence with a familiar tune. Then there are church bells that use music to call people to worship, or to celebrate or convey information about other important events, and during these events, be they marriages or deaths, certain music will be played. At sporting events, like the opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics, a variety of national anthems are sung, each one reflecting something about the culture of that country. And if you still don't believe music can convey a message, try watching a scary film or a romance with the sound turned off, during the era of silent films music was used to set the scene and convey emotion, and that tradition carries on today.

Of course music is now part of the commercial world, we place great importance on today's musical stars, so much so that they can reflect or attempt to change public opinion; music is often used as a way of expressing protest, it played a huge role in the anti Vietnam war movement, and nowadays there isn't a disaster in the world that doesn't get its own song to raise money or awareness. Let's face it, we're all at it; whenever we send a friend or loved one a song link through the internet, or make a compilation CD for someone we like, we are using music as a form of communication, and you can certainly learn a lot about someone from the kind of music they listen to, one of the main sections on profiles in social websites is "Favourite Music".

There's something inside humans, and other animals, that recognises and responds to sound arranged as music. Perhaps music is even more important than language in helping people from different cultures to connect with and understand one another.