By Scott Heinrich BBC Sport in Melbourne

They came in their droves on a cold, drab Tuesday to watch one man take one wicket. As ever, Shane Warne didn't let them down.

Warne celebrated with team-mates in front of his home crowd

Alas, there was no world record crowd to match the world record feat, just 89,155 at Warne's home ground in Melbourne.

Some of them may have been present when the epic journey began almost 15 years ago in Sydney.

There was little suggestion in January, 1992 that Warne would go on to take 100 Test wickets, let alone a groundbreaking 700.

Back then, the overweight young man with a blond mullet and a working-class background had ability, nothing more.

There were good reports from the fledgling national academy, but India's Ravi Shastri handed Warne a baptism of fire on his way to a double century.

Warne returned match figures of 1-168, with Shastri his sole victim.

One of the first to detect above-average skill in Warne was former Australia captain Steve Waugh, who on a 2nd XI tour of Zimbabwe saw, or more precisely heard, something special.

"Warnie was just a young kid. I remember the first over he bowled. I was fielding at bat-pad and I could hear the ball fizzing down the wicket," Waugh recalled.

"It's something I had never heard before or since. It was just the revolutions he was putting on the ball."

He had an abundance of talent - it was just a question of harnessing that talent Mike Gatting

Thereafter, Warne cultivated a soap opera lifestyle and somehow found time outside it to compile a tally of victims considered impossible not long ago.

How on earth did he do it?

Of course, Warne honed his skills over time to become a master of his craft, but there was always more to his armoury than resilience, endurance and a ripping great leg-break.

Former England captain Mike Gatting, who was on the receiving end of Warne's "Ball of the Century" in 1993, believes everything fell in place to make Warne a "genius" of a cricketer.

"I don't think anybody at that time would have thought he would go that far," Gatting told BBC Sport, harking back to that ominous day at Old Trafford.

"He was young, very precocious and discipline wasn't one of his words.

"But without a doubt he had an abundance of talent to bowl leg-breaks. It was just a question of who managed to get hold of him and harness that talent.

Warne allied intelligence to the innate talent he showed early on

"His desire to play for his country was always there, but there must have been people who got him on the straight and narrow."

Belying his image as something of a simpleton, Warne is all brains on the cricket field. He is forever a ball ahead of time upstairs and prides himself on thinking batsmen out.

But that is purely intelligent cricket. Throw in the mind games, the intense appealing and the sledging, and a picture of a sporting assassin emerges.

"Cricket is a game of the mind for Warne. He looks to get something over on a batsman, so that when he plays against him next time he remembers," Gatting said.

"I don't think his [aggressive] way is aimed at any particular person apart from himself.

"Jeff Thomson was similar. He wasn't doing it particularly to have a go at the batsman, he was just trying to keep himself going.

"It's a long day when you've got to bowl for four hours and the pitch isn't doing much. It's a case of provoking a batsman to see how he reacts.

WARNE'S MILESTONE VICTIMS 1st: Ravi Shastri (Ind), Sydney, 1992 100th: Brian McMillan (SA), Adelaide, 1994 200th: Chaminda Vaas (SL), Perth, 1995 300th: Jacques Kallis (SA), Sydney, 1998 400th: Alec Stewart (Eng), The Oval, 2001 500th: Hashan Tillakaratne (SL), Galle, 2004 600th: Marcus Trescothick (Eng), Old Trafford, 2005 700th: Andrew Strauss (Eng), Melbourne, 2006

"It's as important to Warne as a ball that hits the pads and brings an appeal. He does it to elevate himself, to keep himself going, more than to push his opponent down."

And then there is the awe factor, cricket's version of the Stockholm Syndrome. South Africa's Daryl Cullinan, Warne's famous bunny, speaks in appreciative tones about life under Warne's thumb.

"It gave me an opportunity of being a part of what has happened and witness one of the great cricketers from a close distance," said Cullinan.

"In an ironic sort of way it has been something really special."

Nasser Hussain, a long-time adversary of Warne's, was aware of the danger of paying Warne too much respect, and beseeched England to "play the man, not the myth" before the 2005 Ashes.

On Boxing Day 2006, England seemed unsure what they were facing when Warne came on to fulfil his destiny in his penultimate Test appearance.

His fans came for one wicket, they got five and left delirious. That is Warney, the man who has his followers, his rivals, and at times the game itself, on a string.

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