Warne stirs laughter, eye rolling – and fear

Those poor, long-suffering souls have seen enough horror movies to know that no matter how dead the bad guy looks, he always manages to reach a gnarly hand out of the grave one last time ... The greatest leg-spinner of all time admitted the whole notion of an Ashes comeback is a "fairytale" and Cricket Australia treated it as something of a joke, but Warne has never tired of the spotlight and knows that even the peak of his nose through the velvet curtains is enough to raise excitement in the cheap seats.

And save the pity for Stuart MacGill.The great bridesmaid spends more than a decade in Warne's colossal shadow. He suffers serious injury when Warne finally walks away. Then, after he has taken seven wickets in a tour match in the West Indies, Warne muses he might step in should MacGill break a leg.