Shane Warne shares funny Rajasthan Royals anecdotes in his autobiography

Australian spin legend Shane Warne is in the headlines of late because of his autobiography ‘No Spin’ which got released last month. A few days ago, the book was in the discussion because of a number of startling revelations about international cricket – Ashes and his controversial career – but, Warne also wrote about some funny anecdotes from his days spent with the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The 49-year-old Warne, who has over 1,000 wickets and 4,000 runs in international cricket, led the RR for a few seasons and was the captain to lift the title in 2008 when his side defeated the Chennai Super Kings of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the final. The former cricketer was appointed as the RR’s mentor for the 2018 season in which the team made a return to the tournament after serving a two-year suspension.

Among Warne’s anecdotes, one was about Munaf Patel, the fast bowler who represented India internationally. According to the bowler, he had asked Munaf, in whom he saw a nice sense of humor, about his age during a bus ride. Munaf asked back saying whether Warne wanted to know his real age or the one in IPL.

When the Australian kept on prodding him, Munaf said, “I am 24 but if my real age was 34, I would still tell you my IPL age was 24 because this is a good gig and I very much wanted to play. If I am 34, no one picks me. If I am 28, people think I have a few good years left……I’m going to stay in my 20s for a long time to come,” according to the book. Munaf played 13 Tests, 70 ODIs and three T20Is between 2006 and 2011, picking 125 wickets.

When Warne asked Ravindra Jadeja to get off the team bus

Warne then also shared another story and this time, it is about Ravindra Jadeja, a key member of the current Indian team. Jadeja, who is known to be a colorful character, was nicknamed ‘Rockstar’ by Warne, who both loved and reprimanded him whenever the need arose. Warne said Jadeja, a youngster then, was loved for his approach and enthusiasm but also found a lack of discipline in him which he thought was a problem as it could mislead young players.

The Australian said lack of punctuality is something he always detested and Jadeja was one such player. He spoke about one incident in which Jadeja missed the bus to training and had to make it all by himself. While returning, Warne decided to teach the left-arm cricketer a lesson. He stopped the bus midway and asked Jadeja to get off to walk back the rest of the way. One of Jadeja’s mates tried to object and he was also asked to get off.

“No one was late after that,” Warne, the second highest wicket-taker in Tests, wrote in his book.

[interaction id=”5be24dbcfb8f64b7494b2190″]