Former leg-spin bowling great Shane Warne has launched a withering attack on Australian cricket administrators, saying an “arrogant mindset” could see the game’s current No.1 team headed for a fall.
Do you agree Australian cricket is due a fall?
Australia’s greatest Test wicket-taker savaged former coach John Buchanan, calling him “a goose” and said his “verbal diarrhoea” was part of a worrying culture.
“The only issue I have got with cricket at the moment is that Australian administrators, ex-players and ex-coaches a la John Buchanan, have got to stop the arrogant mindset that Australia is so much better than everyone else,” Warne told News Limited newspapers.
“Yes, Australia is the No.1 country in the world at present but all this bull about our players going to other countries and playing … what a lot of crap.
“There is going to be a time in the next two or three years when Australia is tested.
“Other countries will catch up and they will unearth someone, that’s just the cycle, as long as the foundations in these countries are strong.”
Warne foreshadowed the demise of the 50-over game, saying 40-over matches should be introduced and Twenty20 cricket should be kept in to a minimum – because it was a good game and should be seen as special.
The recently retired great also spoke highly of a number of members of the Indian touring party currently in Australia, describing Sachin Tendulkar as not to be written off because he was “the best batsman I have played either with or against”.
He described fellow leg-spinner Anil Kumble, the current Indian captain as “one of the nicest blokes you will ever meet” but “also one of the most competitive players going around”.
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Ottayan said | December 21st 2007 @ 9:56am | Report comment
This war of words reveals that Australians themselves are unsure of how their team will cope in the future.
Yep! They are right for plucking- fortunately for them there is no team strong enough to do it.
Warne suffering from foot-in-mouth gene » The Roar - Your Sports Opinion said | December 23rd 2007 @ 8:55pm | Report comment
[...] to calling his coach a “goose” and suffering from “verbal diarrhoea” as Warne has served to John [...]