In Shane Warne's first autobiography, published in 2001, there's a chapter entitled "The Art of Leg Spin."
After many paragraphs thanking all those who helped him with his cricket career — from his wife Simone to Pakistani spinner Abdul Qadir — Warne suddenly takes you into his own mind to explain what he's thinking in the middle of a match.
Suddenly, you're right there with him, as he gets ready to bowl another jaffa.
"I generally decide what to bowl as I walk back to my mark after the previous ball, then pause to be absolutely clear in my mind," he writes.
"If I am not sure, the pause is a bit longer than usual.
"Once my mind is clear and I start to walk in, there is no time for a change of plan. Leg-spin bowlers start to get into trouble if they have second thoughts."
It's simple stuff, yet shows the sort of decisive confidence we came to love as Warne spun his way to the second-highest tally of wickets in Test cricket history.
The importance of courage
One man who knows what it takes to be a successful leg spinner is Mark McInnes.
The Sydney-based spin coach has helped more than 100 leg-spinners since he started coaching spin full-time in 2007.
A former leg spinner himself, McInnes learned his skills at the Cricket Academy in Adelaide in the late 1990s, before working with former Test players Terry Jenner and Kerry O'Keefe.
He now passes on that knowledge to some of the best young spin talent in New South Wales.
"I was at a coaching lecture, 10 years ago I think, and they were talking about what Cricket Australia wanted from spinners," McInnes says.
"It was resilience, bravery, courage, competitiveness, desire — they just basically listed all of Warne's attributes."
McInnes, who did a lot of his competitive bowling at the picturesque, but small, Manly Oval in Sydney, knows a spinner needs a strong mind if they want to succeed. Otherwise, there's a danger they'll get belted out of the bowling attack before making an impact.
"It's that unwavering self-belief that Warne had, that he can get anyone out," McInnes explains.
"That is really rare, I think. Most players have doubt. Sure, he had doubts, but he was able to overcome that.
"I think that courageous approach was unique to him. It's fine to say that you've got to have courage and be brave, but it's pretty hard to actually do it — especially when you've just been hit for six."
In that same chapter in Warne's first autobiography, he admits that when he reached the top of his bowling mark with too many bowling plans, or didn't know what to do, he just walked in and bowled a leg break. He describes the delivery as "his bread and butter."
And what delicious bread and butter it was. Whether it was the 'ball of the century' to Mike Gatting in 1993, the violently turning delivery that gave him his 700th career wicket against Andrew Strauss at the MCG more than 10 years later, or just a standard over of big turners, the shape of Warne's stock ball was unmistakeable.
"It's actually the drift which is hard to play, because it takes the batsman out of their stance and they get a little bit off balance," McInnes explains, as he studies old footage of Warne bowling.
"Because the ball is spinning so fast, it curves, and then it turns quickly off the wicket and does the batter for pace too."
McInnes says that what made Warne's leg break so good was his stable approach to the wicket and his powerful delivery stride.
"He walked into the crease, to get into that side-on position," McInnes says.
"His bowling arm wasn't vertical, but up at 10 o'clock. That allows him to get around the side of the ball a little bit more and get more side-spin.
"He said many times that he creates the same force through the crease as a fast bowler, so strength is a big part of it for him."
Different deliveries, same result
Arguably, mainstream interest around Warne's career really took off as his change-up deliveries moved into the spotlight.
In one memorable televised segment on Channel 9's cricket coverage, Warne took commentator Mark Nicholas and the viewers through all of his different variations.
The camera keeps rolling as he shuffles through his options and appears to nail every different ball on the first take.
McInnes believes what made Warne's variations so effective was that his delivery action seldom changed and the variations came in different versions, too.
"He could bowl one wrong'un that had lots of side spin, so a big wrong'un, and a little wrong'un, just through adjusting his wrist positioning," McInnes says.
"The finger positions were pretty much the same, but it's how much that angle of spin changed that mattered. It just depended on what he wanted on that day, or what the pitch was doing, or the batsman."
In addition to the googly, Warne's top spinner also brought him plenty of wickets. Amongst other successes, it was the ball that secured him his famous Ashes hat-trick in 1994, when David Boon took a spectacular reflex catch at short leg.
His flipper almost developed its own mythology over the course of Warne's career. YouTube highlights of Warne's trademark skidding delivery are particularly brutal, as a myriad of clueless batters are bowled out or caught LBW even before getting their bat into position.
"It takes a lot of finger, wrist and forearm strength to bowl that ball, at that pace," McInnes says.
"Those deliveries would be up around 95-100 kilometres per hour, with no faster run-up and no faster arm action.
"He would bowl it seam up, so depending on what side the shiny side was on, it would almost swing like a conventional delivery or even reverse-swing, back in to the right-hander.
These days, McInnes says, cricketers tend to bowl more sliders (a type of back-spinner released out of the front of the hand) rather than flippers, because they are easier to land accurately. Warne also bowled that one.
A constant with all his variation deliveries was Warne's unrelenting accuracy, no matter what he decided to send down the pitch.
"He didn't bowl many bad balls, there weren't many full tosses and half trackers, that's the difference," McInnes says.
"Stuart MacGill would bowl balls that spun more than Warne's did, but he would bowl more bad balls in between."
Warne's legacy in spin bowling
With more than 700 career Test wickets and nearly 300 One Day International scalps, Warne's career will likely stay in the history books for some time. But his impact on the current generation of spinners may create an even longer legacy.
Current Test spinner Mitchell Swepson has talked in recent days about how much he gained from Warne's instruction and encouragement, as has Ashton Agar. But even those that didn't have the chance to work with Warne directly, have learned from his career.
Teenager Jade Allen, who recently signed for the Sydney Sixers in the WBBL, says she watched highlights of Warne as she was growing up and always noticed his enjoyment for the game.
"As cricketers, we all kind of knew him, even though we only saw him on TV," she says, on the sidelines of a coaching session with McInnes.
"I never met him, but my brother did. He got a signed picture of him saying 'Keep spinning, Jack' — that was pretty cool."
Despite all of Warne's variations, the 18-year-old rising star from Cobargo says the former spinner's standard leg break is the delivery she most wants to replicate in her burgeoning career.
McInnes believes Warne has certainly made spin bowling more popular among young cricketers, even if the skill is already changing to adjust to more aggressive batting, due to the rise of Twenty20 cricket.
"I wonder now whether slower leg spin bowling, with the big curve and spin that Warne did, will ever happen again. I'm not sure if it will," he says.
"The bowling these days is faster and flatter, to get LBWs and bowled, and mixed up with sliders and flippers.
"I hope it does return again, because his was the purest form of leg spin, in my opinion."
