Everyone has seen ‘that ball’, the Mike Gatting delivery from Shane Warne.
Few know the real story.
This wasn’t the first ball Gatting had ever seen from Warne.
Gatting had seen plenty of Shane Warne’s balls before that.
They were lovers.
Torrid. Hot. Heavy. Feisty. Tubby. Lovers.
A lot of people say that was Warne’s first trip to England, that was not the case, he had played club cricket there years earlier, but struggled to make ends meet, and answered a personal ad from a successful English gentleman.
The ad was placed by the cashed up Mike Gatting, who was still rich from his last trip to South Africa, but lonely at not being the captain of England at the time.
Their affair was turgid , and although they pleasured each other relentlessly, there was an animosity when Shane Warne left Gatting alone in his North London love pad.
When they were reunited, that day at Old Trafford, this was more than a cricket match, this was two lovers finally meeting after an emotional break up a few years before.
The pain, the loss, the love, the lust, it was all there, and Warne, the rent boy, was keen to show up Gatting, the sugar daddy.
Show him up he did, Gatting never saw that ball, and some would say it was a metaphor for their tragically ended relationship.
Remember to support the balls in the Ashes charity match spectacular.
