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Shane Warne calls Steve Waugh ‘most selfish player’ in new book

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https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/shane-warne-calls-steve-waugh-waugh-most-selfish-player-in-new-book/story-LnQ9DjvPS7DtYLRSxAao3N.html

 

He thought of Steve Waugh as “the most selfish player” and wanted to “puke” at the “Baggy Green worship” -- controversial spin legend Shane Warne pulled no punches as he recalled his eventful time in the dressing room of a seemingly invincible Australian team. The revelations and claims come from Warne’s soon-to-be-released book ‘No Spin’, the extracts of which came out in ‘The Times’ newspaper.

“All that worship of the baggy green - some of the guys went with it, like Lang (Justin Langer), Haydos (Matthew Hayden) and Gilly (Adam Gilchrist), 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.” As for Waugh, Warne spoke of the time he was dropped from the team in 1999 during a Test series against the West Indies owing to lack of form and said he felt let down by his skipper’s refusal to back him. “I was vice-captain and bowling pretty ordinary and Tugga (Waugh) 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 (after surgery) 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 of the 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 go see him direct. Perhaps because of this, I was deeply disappointed that he didn’t back me in return,” he said. Warne said he found Waugh to be “niggling” after taking over as captain.

“...there was more to it than my performances - I think it was jealousy. He started to niggle away, telling me to look at my diet and spend more time on deciding what sort of person I wanted to be in my life, how to conduct myself - that sort of stuff. I said, ‘Mate - worry about yourself’,” he wrote.

 

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rtmohanlal Apprentice

rtmohanlal

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Warne's claims carries no sense what so ever, if any it only shows as to what a whining character he is. Keeping enmity ever after these much years for dropping him  from just  1 test for his pathetic performance .In fact that only shows  that Steve Waugh deserves even more credit  as captain for extracting the maximum out of these type of tools  for the benefit of his team

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nevada Grand Master

nevada

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4 hours ago, GolGappe said:

Warne has always been a child trapped in a man's body.

 

However, I always found Waugh to be a bizarre human being. He sounded more like a cult leader and mistakenly believed that general rules and ethics didn't apply to his team.

 

In my books, he deserves lot of credit for bringing ugliness and snotiness into Australian cricket.

Yes, Waugh promoted the ugly sledging culture. Though it was not new and perhaps done with even more intensity in the days of Lillee, Border etc, Waugh took it from an art to the level of science with pre-planned attacks on and off the field. Before him there was Mark Taylor - he built a champion grade team without resorting to the ugly bs that Waugh promoted. 

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putrevus Grand Master

putrevus

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It is not fault of Waugh that players from other teams were weak minded, sledging works only when players react and fall prey to it.

 

The beauty of Aussie teams of 2000 was they did not have a team which was so far superior like 1980s WI teams  yet they dominated the world cricket by their sheer aggressiveness and played to win every match they played never letting opponents breathe.They were relentless unlike 1980s WI teams.Waugh is the reason why they became a great team from good team.

 

 

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