Australian great Shane Warne has ruffled some feathers among Indian cricket fans after he commented on T. Natarajan’s habit of bowling no-balls on the first ball of a few overs.
Natarajan is the only Indian to make his international debut in all three formats on the same tour, and has been nothing short of brilliant. However, his no-balls caught the attention of Warne, who found it “very odd”. The medium pacer bowled six no-balls in Australia’s first innings of the fourth Test at the Gabba and another during the second innings on day four. Five of these were first balls of the over.
“Just something interesting that’s caught my eye when Natarajan was bowling, he’s bowled seven no-balls in this match and they’ve all been big ones,” Warne said.
“And five of them have been off the first ball—and they’re miles over. I found that very odd. We’ve all bowled no-balls, but five of them off the first ball of an over, it’s just interesting.”
Though Warne did not directly say it, his words indicated possible spot-fixing, to which fans took offence and berated him on social media. There was a barrage of tweets directed at Warne for insinuating that Natarajan’s no-balls were suspicious.
Here are some of the reactions:
Pretty poor of Warne to indicate that Natarajan was doing "spot fixing" by bowling those no balls. I hope BCCI takes this up seriously.
— Biswarup Ghatak (@BishOnTheRockz) January 18, 2021
The commentary said nothing about Smith and the batting guard but Warne comments on Natarajan bowling no balls and says he is match fixing! Natarajan has been a net bowler for a while and is making his test debut.
— Joshan Basi (@BasiJoshan) January 18, 2021
Mr. Shane Warne. Implying Natarajan is engaging in spot fixing (no balls) is very poor. Even by your standards. #AUSvIND
— cricBC (@cricBC) January 18, 2021
