‘His comments are a reflection of himself’ – Steve Waugh reacts on Shane Warne’s ‘selfish’ jibe

Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, has opened up on Shane Warne’s outrageous comments. Earlier, the spin wizard called Waugh a ‘selfish’ cricketer, but Waugh, the 1999 World Cup winning Aussie skipper, was least bothered about the stern remarks by his teammate.

Waugh, who’s known for his composed temperament, said that Warne’s words are nothing, but a reflection of himself. The 54-year-old from Canterbury didn’t mince any words in saying that he had nothing to do with what Warne mentioned.

“People keep saying it’s a feud. But to me, a feud is between two people. I’ve never bought into it, so it’s just one person. His comments are a reflection of himself, nothing to do with me. That’s all I’d say,” Waugh was quoted as saying in BDcrictime.

“Steve was easily the most selfish cricketer I ever played with. It could have been a cut-and-paste of a cut-and-paste of a cut-and-paste,” the tweet read.

Earlier, ESPNcricinfo posted a statistic where Waugh was involved in more run-outs than anyone else. Out of the 104 times, Waugh was run out 31 times while his partner fell short of the crease 73 times.

Steve Waugh and Warne’s brawl

Back during Warne’s early days, Waugh tried to bring him in for the New South Wales team when Victoria wasn’t showing much interest in the tweaker. In 1999, during Waugh’s maiden series as the national Test skipper, Warne was returning from a shoulder injury.

The Aussies fell 1-2 behind in the series with Warne getting only a couple of wickets from three matches. Hence, Waugh resorted to dropping the leg-spin bowler. It made Warne furious and he took on his smoking habits again.

In the end, Australia won the final Test to draw level in the series. Warne would go on to pick in excess of 700 Test wickets, second only to the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan. In his career, Waugh would also go on and garner numerous laurels.

In 168 Tests and 325 ODIs, the now 54-year-old churned out 10,927 and 7,569 runs respectively with 35 centuries and 95 half-centuries. He retired in 2004 after Australia’s home Test against Sourav Ganguly’s India at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground.