'Warnie would have a smoke before the game' - Michael Clarke reveals the dressing room secret of Shane Warne

Shane Warne with 708 Test wickets tormented the opposition team with his phenomenal leg-spin and was widely regarded as one of the best leg spinners to have played the game. He was also known to be involved a lot in controversies often with his own teammates or with his opponents. The legendary player would often hog the limelight for the wrong reasons.

Former World Cup-winning captain Michael Clarke too shared one of the incidents of Warne when the two were playing together in the early 2000s. Clarke has revealed that Warne often smoked before stepping onto the cricket field. He also added that the legspinner would cope with pressure situations by having a smoke while taking the field for Baggy Greens. For a long period of time, Warne led the Australian attack along with Glenn McGrath.

Speaking on the Uncensored Podcast, Clarke lavished praise on the legendary cricketer for always coming good for the Australian team during the tough times. “He would always leave the things happening off the field, off the field. Generally, Warnie would have a smoke as he was walking onto the ground. He will try to hide it somewhere. And when he finished his smoke and put it out, he knew that it was game time,” Clarke said.

Shane Warne never took off-field matters on the field reckons Clarke

“He crossed that line and whatever he had going off the field, he would leave it there, go and do his stuff on the field and when he came back, he knew it was still going to be there,” he added. Warne’s One Day International (ODI) career had a premature ending after the spin legend failed a routine drug test before the start of the 2003 World Cup.

It was not only in Tests that Warne would cast his spell but in the ODIs too he was effective changing the game within an over or two. His most iconic spell in ODI was undoubtedly the one against South Africa in the semi-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1999. His four wickets for only 29 runs enabled Australia to tie the game and enter into the finals by virtue of the net run rate. He ended his ODI career with 293 wickets.