Imran scoffs at calls for Warne’s Ashes return
CRICKET: NEW DELHI, Dec 11 (AFP) - Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan
said on Thursday he was bemused by suggesions that spin wizard Shane
Warne should come out of retirement to resurrect Australia’s Ashes
hopes.
“I have not watched Warne bowl recently, but it can’t be easy to play
Test cricket again,” Imran said at a promotional event in New Delhi for
next year’s World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
“It is okay to play one-dayers and even easier to bowl in Twenty20,
where you have to bowl only four overs. But Test cricket is different
where you have to last on the field over five days.”
Calls for Warne’s return intensified after England thrashed Australia
by an innings and 71 runs in the second Test in Adelaide on Tuesday to
go 1-0 up in the five-match series.
A Brisbane cricket fan Ross Heywood even launched a website devoted
to raising funds to entice Warne to make himself available for the rest
of the Ashes series.
Warne, 41, retired in 2007 as Australia’s leading Test bowler with
708 wickets.
Imran said Warne’s best chance of a comeback would be on the spinning
wicket in Sydney for the final Test from January 3. “Australia will
definitely need a spinner, especially in Sydney where the track assists
spin bowling,” he said. “If Warne has to make a comeback it has to be at
Sydney.”
West Indian great Vivian Richards, who also attended the New Delhi
event, was not surprised at the clamour for Warne. “To go back to Warne
shows Australia are in dire straits,” the star batsman said. “They just
do not have the bowling attack to take 20 wickets if conditions are not
favourable. “The way Australia are playing in the Ashes shows they are
on decline. They are not the best team in the world anymore, they are on
the way down.”
|