Dick, unless we are thinking of completely different deliveries, you are terribly wrong.
That frequently replayed perfect ball to Mike Gatting, Shane Warne's first delivery in that Test, in what, 1993? the delivery that changed the face of Test cricket, was no more a flipper than I am an Arab. It was simply the perfect leg break. It pitched outside leg stump and took off stump; totally unplayable. No batsman in the world could have played it, and Gatting's shock was understandable.
The ball that Whiskery asserts as coming out the back of the hand, and the one you seem to be referring to, is not the flipper either, but the wrong 'un, turning from off to leg. Warne's wrong 'un has never been a potent weapon.
The flipper on the other hand doesn't turn at all. Delivered from the side of the hand with no loop, its value is in its increased speed. As it was performed by Warne at his peak, if you didn't pick it you were out, because it almost always pitched in line and hurried on so quickly that LBW was the only possibility. Ask Darryl Cullinan about it; it broke his heart and destroyed his career.
Alas, Warne hasn't bowled a decent flipper since his shoulder operation, but it was an absolute joy to watch at his peak.
P.S. Sorry to the guys who posted before me. The bloody forums have been down for so long that neither of your posts appeared by the time I got on to respond.
[ 28 January 2002: Message edited by: Binoculars ]</p>