Cricket: Have we seen the back of legspinner Warne?

By Richard Boock

At the World Cup


LONDON - Shane Warne is not quite ready yet to retract his comments about a possible retirement at the end of the year.

The star ingredient in yesterday's World Cup final, Warne had earlier this year talked about retiring after being dropped from the Australian test side playing in the West Indies.

Speaking after collecting his second consecutive man-of-the-match award yesterday, Warne would not rule out turning his back on the game even though his form near the end of this tournament has been reminiscent of the glory days.

"I'll take a few weeks off with my family and then have a look at things," he said after following up his four for 29 in the semifinal with four for 33 at Lord's.

"I've spoken to a few people about my future but I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I'm just very proud of what we've achieved today. It's a matter of great satisfaction that I helped Australia win.

"I just woke up this morning and knew I wanted to make amends for the last final [when he took none for 58]. I thought I'd been bowling quite well all tournament really. I'd gone for a few here and there, but that's just the nature of the game."

A bit more phlegmatic than the Shane Warne who was feeling a mite frosty about things when he was dropped in the Carribbean for the first time in seven years, after struggling to regain form following a shoulder operation.

Aussie skipper Stave Waugh said any decision by Warne to retire was purely a personal one.

"As a player and captain you'd like him to carry on because he's such a great bowler," Waugh said after the final. "But in the end the decision is his. Just like Mark Taylor decided when to go, so does Warney."

The 29-year-old legspinner's future had been questioned in the early stages of the tournament but he answered all the critics by storming back to equal Geoff Allott's tournament record tally of 20 wickets.

Waugh said Australia's plan had been to heap pressure on the younger members of the Pakistan side and attempt to force them into errors.

The average age of the Pakistan team was 25 and there were two players in yesterday's final aged just 19, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi.

"They had quite a few younger players and we knew if we put them under pressure they might crack," Waugh said. "We strangled them in the end. We saved our best performance until last, and I'd say that was a close as we can get to putting it all together.

"It felt very good. We executed our game-plan brilliantly, took our half-chances - which is what we'd talked about the night before - and ended up getting home much more comfortably than we expected."

Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram said his team had no reason to be dissatisfied because on the day they had been completely outplayed by Australia.

"Steve's side showed that they're the best in the world, and they deserve the World Cup. I'm not too disappointed," he said.

"I've always maintained that Shane Warne is the best legspinner in the world and today he showed us just how good he is."