Great entertainer Warne to take final bow

SYDNEY, Dec 21 (Reuters) Shane Warne has described his life as a soap opera but for once the Australian leg-spinner was underplaying his hand.

His turbulent career was more like a Hollywood blockbuster.

Arguably the most influential cricketer since the late Don Bradman, Warne's life followed the most unlikely script, captivating and polarising sports fans around the world.

From humble beginnings in suburban Melbourne, Warne, who announced today he would quit international cricket next month, became one of the greatest players the game has seen and revitalised the dying art of wrist-spin bowling.

His brilliance as a player is without dispute. A sharp slip fielder and underrated batsmen with a highest test score of 99, Warne's real flair was with the ball. He holds the world record for the most test wickets (699) and has been at the forefront of Australia's domination of world cricket for the last 15 years.

He tormented, and occasionally made fools of, the greatest batsmen in history with his wonderful bag of tricks, including the flipper, the googly, the slider, the top spinner and his stock ball, the leg break.

Warne was able to make a cricket ball do things that no-one had imagined possible while introducing millions of new fans to a game steeped in tradition and locked in conservatism.

A natural showman with a sense of theatre, Warne saved his best performances for the biggest stages -- the Ashes and the World Cup -- and was never far from the spotlight, whether he was on the field or off it.

His personal life was full of turbulence. His dream of skippering Australia ended in 2000 when he was stripped of the vice-captaincy for sending lewd text messages to an English nurse, and he separated from his wife Simone in 2005 following media reports of his infidelities.

He was fined by the Australian Cricket Board in 1995 after admitting taking money from a man associated with an Indian bookmaker for providing information about pitches and weather, although the case was hushed up for three years.

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