Legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne remarks the former Australian skipper Steve Waugh as the most selfish player in his upcoming autobiography – No Spin.
In his autobiography, Warne wrote that Waugh completely changed after he became the national captain. Once again Warne took the dig at Waugh for dropping out him in the fourth Test during the West Indies tour in 1999.
After taking only two wickets in the first three Tests of that series, where Warne had the bowling average of 134, he was dropped in the fourth and final Test of that series at St John’s. Warne was never happy with that decision as he believes he performed enough to stay in the team.
Warne wrote, “He became a completely different person when he took over as captain. 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.’”
Warne further added that he felt hugely disappointed on Waugh as he didn’t support him during his tough times despite they were being a good friend.
Warne wrote, “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.”
Warne further added, “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.”
