Paul Barry: The Shane Warne Story

Shane Warne is the world's greatest spinner, but he's set a record for the number of times he's been caught out off the field. Picture / Reuters

If anyone really needed any confirmation that Shane Warne is a goose - a wonderful leg-spinner but a goose - they should find all the necessary ammunition in this unauthorised biography, Spun Out.

Written by established author Paul Barry (The Rise and Fall of Alan Bond), the 27-chapter book is the classic warts-and-all story of the world's most successful cricketer, with the focus more on the warts than anything else.

It was only a matter of time. Warne's autobiography was published five years ago and must rank as one of the biggest novels to appear on the non-fiction stands.

The irony was that, by sanitising his own version of events to such a degree, Warne left so much of his story untold that it was inevitable that someone would come along and fill in the gaps.

This isn't supposed to be the purist's account of Warne's cricketing exploits. It's more about all the questions the great leg-spinner has refused to answer - on his womanising and betrayal of wife Simone, the bookmaker saga, the drugs scandal, the sledging and the general buffoonery.

It must have been a tricky assignment even for someone of Barry's experience. Warne refused to co-operate from the start, and instructed all his teammates and team officials to stay silent with him.

The other complication for the author must have been that, although Spun Out is supposed to be a tell-all, hardly anything in it will come as a surprise for the moderately-informed reader.

Yes, there's new information and interviews that clarify what a complete bonehead Warne is, there's a more revealing study of his family background, and some candid observations from childhood and school friends.

Barry describes a cricketer who seems to have been raised as a spoiled mummy's boy - a walking paradox of a man, supremely confident yet profoundly insecure and a philanderer of international repute.

For all that, there's nothing in the book particularly revealing in light of what we already knew about him. It's more the sheer weight of numbers that starts to catch the eye; the scale of his stupidity.

Run a glance over these names and try to figure out what they've all got in common: Lisa Ramsden, Donna Wright, Helen Cohen Alon, Angela Gallagher, Kerrie Collymore, Rebecca Weeden, Gemma Hayley, Laura Sayers, Julia Reynolds, plus a topless MTV presenter named Emma, and an equally topless TV gardener called Coralie.