Warne

Cape Town: Spin legend and Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne, who has never been an admirer of John Buchanan’s style of functioning, said the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket manager’s multiple-captain theory would only confuse the players.

Warne, who had a stormy relation with Buchanan during their days together in the Australian team, said the idea mooted by Buchanan simply could not work.

“He is always trying to reinvent something and came up with the solution of four captains. But I don’t agree with it,” Warne told a television channel.

“I think there is one captain who runs the game, it’s as simple as that,” he added.

Buchanan’s idea found few takers with the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar opposing it, the latter in fact calling it a mockery of the game.

Warne never thought highly of Buchanan when the latter was the coach of the Australian team and opposed his boot camp ideas and maintained that Australia’s success under him was more because of the skill of the players than his way of coaching.

The spin legend said the multiple-captain theory would only create confusion.

“As a captain if you want to get the best out of the players, you keep interacting with them, sending them messages all the time. Now with four captains, I’m sure one guy would be telling something and other something else. The players would be really confused.

“I don’t think it would work and I don’t agree with whatsoever it is,” Warne said.

After quitting international cricket, Warne, who led Rajasthan Royals to a fairytale victory in the inaugural Indian Premier League last year, has been busy playing poker and was supposed to play a cricket match at Los Angeles along with Hollywood actor Hugh Jackman and former England Prime Minister John Major.

“I have been playing a fair bit of poker. There was talk of playing a cricket match in America involving Hugh Jackman during the IPL. Some people felt I’ll play that match and forget IPL but you see that is not the case,” he said.

Warne was also the subject of a recent musical and the spin great said he liked it.

“It’s always interesting to have a musical based on your life. Sitting back and watching two hours of your life sort of unfolding before you, it was pretty good,” he said. (PTI)