Shane Warne calls an Australian legend as the 'Most selfish player'

In his autobiography, No Spin, former Aussie leg-spinner termed Steve Waugh as the ‘most selfish player’ he has ever played with. This duo hasn’t had the best of equations since the former skipper dropped him back in 1999 for the fourth Test against West Indies. Warne said that the former Aussie skipper only played to maintain his average of 50.

By dropping him for that game, Warne noted that he let him down during his tough phase. He added that is was all about jealousy rather than about the performances which led to this incident. In that series, Warne picked just two wickets at an average of 134.00 in the first three Tests. The series was evenly poised before the fourth and final Test, the same game in which Warne was dropped and Australia won eventually. The leggie was the team’s vice-captain back then.

“He became a completely different person when he took over as captain,” Warne wrote. “It wasn’t that he dropped me. I have no issue about being dropped if I’m not performing; if you don’t perform, out you go. But 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.'”

‘Disappointed is not a strong enough word’

Shane Warne still doesn’t seem to be over that incident. He went on to write that the former Aussie skipper didn’t support him well in his difficult times and he regrets that incident till date. “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. I conducted myself badly, to be honest. I wasn’t that supportive of the team, which I regret,” he wrote.

“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. 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 concluded.

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