Warne wades in on KP exile

SHANE Warne has fired the first psychological shot of Australia’s mini-tour by attacking England’s treatment of Kevin Pietersen.

Warne believes it is “ridiculous” that Andy Flower insisted on sticking to the terms of Pietersen’s contract by banishing his star batsman from England’s Twenty20 team once it became clear he wanted to retire from one-day cricket.

“It staggers me,” said the Australian legend yesterday, ahead of the five-match oneday series that begins without his great friend Pietersen at Lord’s on Friday. “It’s just a bit too much ego for my liking from the ECB. I’m very surprised they didn’t say: ‘Okay, Kevin, we know you want to balance your career and family commitments, we would love you in the one-day side, but if you just want to play Test and Twenty20 cricket that’s great.’ To me it’s a huge loss.”

Warne may be engaging in the custom of staging a phoney war whenever the old enemies meet, but he did offer a valid comparison with Australia’s handling of captain Michael Clarke. “Michael gave up Twenty20 because he couldn’t play in all formats, but could you imagine Australia dropping him from the one-day side? I don’t think the ECB has shown… common sense.”

Warne is a big fan of Clarke, who has overcome the doubts of much of the Australian public to prove himself a worthy successor as captain to Ricky Ponting.

“I love the way Australia are being captained,” said Warne. “There’s a resurgence in their form across the board and they’re playing an aggressive brand of cricket. Michael has a lot of imagination and is very good tactically.” But Warne believes England are favourites for this series, a battle he sees as an appetiser for next year’s back-to-back Ashes contests.

Former England captain Tony Greig has accused the Indian board of running international cricket to suit itself.

In his MCC Spirit of Cricket lecture at Lord’s, he said: “Much of the game is controlled by the BCCI because it controls enough votes to block any proposal put forward at the ICC board meetings.”

He urged India to “lead cricket by acting in the best interests of all countries”. – Daily Mail