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Belief, technique, and above all else, spin. Shane Warne encapsulated the desired legacy of Terry Jenner by saying that all Australia slow bowlers had to be implored to 'rev' the ball as hard as they could, and to a build a career from that most basic of tenets.
Jenner's final farewell was attended by more than 600 guests in an emotive memorial service at Adelaide Oval, where the speakers included his daughter Trudianne, Warne, fellow pupil Cullen Bailey and Jenner's long-time partner Ann. Aged 66, Jenner died on May 25 in his suburban Adelaide home a little more than a year after suffering a massive heart attack while coaching in London.
Other guests such as Ian and Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh, Ashley Mallett, Doug Walters, Martin Kent, Ray Bright, Bryce McGain, Darren Lehmann, Jason Gillespie and the Australian coach Tim Nielsen reminisced about Jenner's impact on many inside and outside cricket over the course of a life that saw hard times as well as good.
Warne, a pudgy youth with one expensive Test wicket to his name in 1992 when Jenner urged him to start making more sacrifices in the name of his art, said most of his advice to young spin bowlers was rooted in Jenner's teaching.
"Most of the stuff I pass on to spinners is mainly from TJ," Warne said before the service. "With 21 or 22 years of being involved with first-class cricket myself I've obviously learned a bit, but the major messages are exactly the same as what TJ was telling me 20-odd years ago. I'm passing on the same sort of stuff and have done for a long time.
"It's not so much a technical thing. As a spin bowler you've got to spin the ball, that's the most important message that TJ taught me, if I want to look at a fast bowler I'll watch him bowl fast, if I want to watch a swing bowler I'll watch him swing the ball, but if I want to watch a spin bowler I'll see him spin the ball. So that's the No.1 message to any spinner that I've always passed on.
"There's just little things, a little bit technically but it's more about the way you think, your attitude to it, and your captain being one of your best friends who you might share a beer with at the end, that might give you an extra over here or there too. [Also] field settings, what to look for in batsmen, how to approach different situations, Twenty20's impact."
Jenner's death has left a vast gap in Australian cricket's knowledge about slow bowling, something emphasised by the fact that a spin summit was taking place in Brisbane on the same day as his funeral. Warne said he would keep pushing to educate those that had followed him about the best way to bowl spin, and had already spoken with the new captain Michael Clarke about the strengths and weaknesses of various members of the modest Australian spin stable.
"I think we've got a lot of good spinners at the moment, it's just about getting them some confidence, making them believe, getting the captains to back them, giving them exposure at first-class level, and supporting them," Warne said. "Getting a process in place from CA, all the way down to grassroots cricket, and the same messages going out there all the time - that's the most important thing.
| "We had ongoing discussions about different things. One of the things was about the line you should bowl for a legspinner, it took probably 21 years for him to agree I could actually bowl leg-stump." Warne on his interactions with Jenner | |||
"The spin bowling summits in Brisbane I've helped out the last few years, I've only just got back from India and I've got my kids for a couple of weeks. I haven't been able to get up there this time but I'm always available, I've spoken to Michael Clarke a few times about some of the spinners and things to work on and I'll keep giving back to Australian cricket like I have done for a while, and helping in any way I can."
In Brisbane, Jason Krejza emphasised the difficulties facing those who had followed Warne by discussing how confused he had been after being jettisoned from the Test team only one match after taking 12 wickets on debut against India in Nagpur in 2008.
"I was a bit of a mental case [after being dropped] and thought about things way too far ahead and too deep," Krejza said. "I just had to concentrate on how I was playing the next day, that's the simplest way to do it - it doesn't do your head in. I had to get back to being the attacking spinner that I always was and stay consistent. I won't stop being an attacking spinner now - I can't go the other way, I have to stay in that mindset."
Warne summed up Jenner's advice as often being of the kind that seemed obvious only after it had been suggested.
"I was very lucky to come under his guidance and tutelage to teach me so many wonderful things," he said. "Just some simple things you never really thought of but when he said it you'd be 'yeah, ok, that makes sense', and then we'd go away and work on them.
"We had ongoing discussions about different things. One of the things was about the line you should bowl for a legspinner, it took probably 21 years for him to agree I could actually bowl leg stump - let's call it a discussion rather than a debate - but we'll all miss him.
"I wouldn't have been able to do what I did for Australian cricket if it wasn't with his help."
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