SYDNEY, June 4: Australian spin legend Shane Warne said on Wednesday he was “happily retired” from Test cricket and had no intention of staging a dramatic comeback.
Warne was responding to speculations that he would be tempted back into bamboozling the world’s top batsmen by Stuart McGill’s surprise retirement announcement this week.
“I’ve got no interest at all at this stage. I’m very happily retired, I’m comfortable where I’m at the moment,” he told reporters on arrival at the Melbourne Airport.
Warne, 38, who retired from international cricket in January 2007 with a then world record 708 Test wickets, last month raised the prospect of a return for next year’s Ashes series against England if MacGill was injured.
But he said on Wednesday those comments did not apply to the current situation.
“I actually said I was happily retired and if Stuart MacGill broke his leg — which he hasn’t, he’s retired — and there was no other spinner in Australia and if Ricky (Ponting) asked me, I’d consider it,” Warne stated.
“If that’s coming back out of retirement, I’m not sure. I don’t think it is.”
MacGill called it quits on his 44-Test career on Sunday midway through the second Test against the West Indies in Antigua after admitting that at 37 he was no longer up to the rigours of international cricket.
The veteran, who spent much of his playing career in Warne’s shadow, only made the Australian tour of the Caribbean after overcoming serious knee and wrist injuries.—AFP
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