Sunday 12 April 2009

Shane Warne speaks on IPL

This is like IPL gold. Same newspaper, Shane Warne has also given an interview about the Rajasthan Royals and the IPL in general (especially now that it's being held in SA). There's quite a few interesting things in it, but I'm picking out a few particular bits:
"Captains should always run the cricket. At international level I don’t think you need a coach. At domestic level you need a coach."
That's an interesting thought, and not one I necessarily agree with. Putting the pressure of coaching the team on the captain seems to be too hard a job, especially if the team is already under pressure to perform well. Coaches are always getting bashed by public figures, or the public. If a captain were to undergo scrutiny over their coaching, in addition to the scrutiny they already face about their performance, then I think we'd be seeing many unhappy teams around the world.
"We were very well prepared and we gave everyone a role and nickname. Graeme Smith was the “Rock at the top”. He batted with Swapnil Asnodkar who was the “Goa Cannon” — go and hit them. We had all these names that the guys loved."
That's almost funny.
"We’ve got one young player who’s going to be very interesting. We’re tossing up now what his nickname is going to be — Wild Thing or Tornado, something like that. Kamran Khan is a young kid, a left-armer, a slinger, he doesn’t speak much English at the moment. He’s a tiny little guy but he bowls 140 plus."
Well, he sounds awesome. Like a little bowling machine. I'm highly interested.

On his relationship with Graeme Smith:
"We had a few beers after the first game and chatted about a lot of stuff. We hung out a fair bit. We’ve kept in touch since then and become good buddies."
Move over, KP.
"He was so verbal and public about everything. We won 5-0 (in 2005/06) and I said to him the other day, when something’s not working, try to do something else. Don’t just continue and let the ego get in the way."
Excellent advice, Warnie.

Great article. Check it out. I'm just disappointed Warne didn't say anything directly about Buchanan. He sort of implied a few things, though.

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