Australian leg-spinning wizard Shane Warne said on Wednesday he would retire from one-day international cricket after the World Cup, with the aim of extending his Test career by at least five years.
The move to quit in March after the game’s showpiece in South Africa and Zimbabwe is also designed to avoid the risk of being sacked like the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, the 33-year-old said.
Warne revealed he made his decision after suffering a dislocated shoulder last month that ruled him out of the final two Ashes Tests and forced him to undergo a painful rehabilitation programme.
”The number one priority for me is to play Test cricket for as long as I can,” said Warne, who has 491 Test wickets.
”It’s a decision I haven’t come to lightly because I love
playing for Australia, but everyone I’ve spoken to thinks it’s a pretty positive and smart decision and also a pretty gutsy one.
”I’ve got mixed emotions — it’s quite sad in a way that I might have only a few games left in one-day cricket but it’s not as though I’m retiring from everything. Hopefully this will prolong my Test career and I can play for five or six years.”
Warne said the anguish of his shoulder injury and the subsequent six-hours-a-day recovery sessions with team physiotherapist Errol Alcott and fitness coach Jock Campbell convinced him to devote all his energies to the Test arena.
Helter-skelter one-dayers, he decided, were too taxing on his ageing body.
”The one-day form is a fantastic way to show different skills like diving around the field, bowling different ways, slogging with the bat, throwing the stumps down, it’s just great fun and I’m going to miss that,” he said.
”But it’s only a matter of time if you keep playing until
something else is going to go wrong with injuries. I probably wanted to do it (retire from one-dayers) down the
track a bit further, but the decision was brought forward when I was carried off.
”Diving around and throwing yourself around in the field is what you have to do in one-day cricket. It just brought home the pressures of one-day cricket on my shoulder and on my body.”
Warne made his decision earlier this week after consulting
one-day captain Ricky Ponting, coach John Buchanan, the selectors, his team-mates, friends, family and the Australian Cricket Board, all of whom supported him.
Test skipper Steve Waugh and his twin Mark have been summarily sacked from one-day duty in the past year.
Warne says he wants no such exit.
”A year or so down the track I don’t particularly want to get the tap on the shoulder,” he said. ”I’m going out my way, the way I wanted to go out and while I’m still at the top of my game. Hopefully, this way I’ll be around and you can look at my ugly dial for a few years yet in Test cricket.
”My form this last year has probably been the best it’s ever been statistically and performance-wise, the way I’ve bowled has made me very happy.”
Warne has played 191 one-dayers for Australia, taking 288
wickets at an average of 25,79. – Sapa-AFP