London
Shane Warne thought of Steve Waugh as “the most selfish player” and wanted to “puke” at the “baggy green worship”. The revelations and claims come from Warne’s soon-to-be-released book ‘No Spin’, the extracts of which came out in The Times here.
“All that worship of the baggy green some of the guys went with it, like Lang (Justin Langer), Haydos (Matthew Hayden) and Gilly , but it wasn’t for me,” Warne wrote.
“They loved it but, to be honest, they made me want to puke with it half the time. I mean, wearing it at Wimbledon! Who wears a green cricket cap to Wimbledon? It was just embarrassing! Mark Waugh felt the same. I don’t need a baggy green to prove what playing for Australia means to me or to the people who watch us.”
The legendary spinner pulled no punches as he recalled his eventful time in the dressing room of a seemingly invincible Australian team. Warne spoke of the time he was dropped from the team in 1999 during a Test series against West Indies owing to lack of form and said he felt let down by his skipper’s refusal to back him. “I was the vice-captain and bowling pretty ordinary and Tugga opened the selection meeting between the two of us and Geoff Marsh, the coach, by saying, ‘Warney, I don’t think you should play this next Test’,” he said.
“Silence. ‘Er, right,’ I said. ‘Why?’ ‘I don’t think you’re bowling very well, mate.’ ‘Yes… fair call,’ I admitted. ‘My shoulder is taking longer than I thought but it’s close now. The feel is slowly coming back and then the rhythm will come, mate. I’m not worried’,” he recalled.
Warne said he got the backing of Marsh and selector Allan Border but Waugh stuck to his guns and asked for his omission. “Disappointed is not a strong enough word. When the crunch came, Tugga didn’t support me, and I felt so totally let down by someone who I had supported big time and was also a good friend,” Warne wrote.
The maverick spinner said he didn’t respond too well to the dropping and “conducted myself badly, to be honest”. “I wasn’t that supportive of the team, which I regret. Looking back, this was probably a combination of the shoulder issue still eating away at me and the pure anger bubbling inside at Steve’s lack of trust,” he wrote.
“During the first three Tests, at various times, some bowlers came to me, grumbling about Tugga’s captaincy and field placements and stuff.
“I said I was backing him to the hilt and if they had a problem with the captain they should see him direct. Perhaps because of this, I was deeply disappointed that he didn’t back me in return,” he said.
