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Australian legend Shane Warne, the man who famously remarked during his playing days that the only use for a coach in cricket was to take the team to and from the ground, has expressed interest in taking on the job with England.
With the old enemy searching for a new coach after Chris Silverwood was axed after a disastrous 4-0 Ashes tour of Australia, the champion leg-spinner told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast he’d be up for the challenge of turning England’s dire recent red-ball form around.
“I think I’d do a pretty good job… I’d like to do it,” Warne remarked, when asked by host Nasser Hussain whether he’d be capable of taking on the job.
“I think there’s a lot to work with, but I wouldn’t be called the coach; I think I’d be called team manager.”
Despite a horror tour of Australia, Warne believes there is ‘a lot to work with’ within the England set-up – if they can get the fundamentals back on track.
“There’s so many good players in England, you’ve got a lot of depth – you’ve just got to get some of the basics right,” Warne said.
“Your catching, you can’t bowl no-balls and drop so many catches.
“You’ve got the players, they’re just not performing.”
Warne currently coaches London Spirit in England’s limited-overs competition The Hundred, while he has worked as a spin-bowling consultant for a number of teams around the world, including for Australia.
For him, the key to being a successful coach lies in one thing – honesty.
“You’ve got to be honest with the players,” he said.
“It’s like when you leave a player out, you don’t say ‘team balance’ or ‘we’re just going with this team for these conditions’.
“You say why you’re being left out, there’s a reason you’re left out.
“All the players might not like what they hear, but they’ll respect you for being honest with them.”
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Warne has become famous for several controversial calls on team selection in the media. His criticism of Mitchell Starc has become infamous, while he has famously called for limited-overs all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and Tasmanian fast bowler Riley Meredith, among others, to receive Test opportunities for Australia.
The same goes for England, with Warne pushing hard for T20 all-rounder Liam Livingstone to become a regular in all formats.
“I think he has a role to play in red-ball cricket and that he is worth a try in the middle order,” Warne said.
“He bowls some pretty handy leg-spin as well. A bit of wrist-spin when the bowlers are tired, he would be pretty dangerous.”
Warne also endorsed former Australian coach Justin Langer as an ideal candidate for England, after his acrimonious departure from the Aussie job.
The Western Australian has already been heavily linked to the job, with former captains Hussain and Michael Vaughan giving their blessing and current director of cricket Andrew Strauss admitting he was well and truly in the frame.
“If I was England, I’d be jumping at him,” Warne said of Langer.
Warne was a vocal critic of Cricket Australia and the players’ role in the 51-year old’s ousting, describing his exit as ‘a disgrace’.
“I thought was really poor from Cricket Australia,” Warne said on Fox Cricket in early February.
“The way it was handled, I thought was a disgrace.
“I don’t know if it was the right decision. I’m not sure how it got to that.”
England are in the midst of preparations for their upcoming three-Test series against the West Indies in the Caribbean, with former player Paul Collingwood filling in as interim coach.
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