Cricket legend Shane Warne has reignited his feud with Steve Waugh, once again calling his former captain the “most selfish cricketer” he ever played with.
A report on ESPNcricinfo found that Waugh was involved in more run outs than any other player in the history of international cricket. During 493 Tests and ODI matches, the batsman was a part of 104 run outs throughout his 19-year career.
MOST PARTNERS RUN OUT IN INTERNATIONAL CRICKET
Steve Waugh (AUS) – 73
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI) – 56
Sachin Tendulkar (IND) – 55
Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) – 55
Aravinda de Silva (SL) – 51
The ESPNCricinfo report, in turn, prompted super fan Rob Moody to posted a video compilation of all those run-outs on Youtube.
And Warne responded by quote tweeting his comments to a tweet by Rob Moody. The leg-spinner felt the statistics were justification for why he calls Waugh the most selfish cricketer he has played with.
For the record AGAIN & I’ve said this 1000 times - I do not hate S Waugh at all. FYI - I picked him in my all time best Australian team recently. Steve was easily the most selfish cricketer that I ever played with and this stat....... https://t.co/QMigV788L7
— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) May 15, 2020
This, of course, isn’t the first time Warne has spoken Waugh.
In his book ‘No Spin’, Warne had spoken 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 in the book.
“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 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.
As Warne clarified in his tweet, he does not hate Waugh and great respect for his ability as a cricketer but he clearly isn’t one to let bygones remain bygones.
