By IANS
Sydney : Cricket Australia is planning to employ bitter rivals Shane Warne and John Buchanan in mentoring roles for the Australian squad, Australian media reported Saturday.
The surprising announcement came just one day after the legendary Warne used his exclusive The Daily Telegraph column to attack the former Test coach, while also saying he feared for the future of an “arrogant” Australian team.
But the sizeable spray, where Warne labelled Buchanan a “goose” who was “living in pixieland”, doesn’t faze the game’s controlling body — at least according to spokesman Peter Young.
“Looking back over the past 10 years, you could argue that John Buchanan has been the most successful coach in the game at any level,” Young said last night.
“And it’s the same with Shane Warne in terms of bowlers. So the thought of having them both work for us is salivating.
“While they have different ideas we don’t expect there to be any problems. I think they even shared a tent together at one of those boot camps.”
A tent? Warnie and Buck? Maybe Cricket Australia could chuck a couple of swags into their foyer for a sleepover?
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Young said. “We don’t even know yet if they’ll be expected to exactly work together. But we already have John employed in a mentoring role with us, working with the coaches — and we hope to announce Shane in a similar role within weeks.”
In a powerfully-worded outburst against his former coach, Warne said yesterday: “I disagree with John Buchanan all the time. I don’t think he has made one good point in a long time.
Warne also said some administrators, ex-players and ex-coaches had developed an “arrogant mindset that Australia is so much better than anybody else”.
Buchanan has politely declined to return fire to the spin king. But leading Australian cricketers Adam Gilchrist and Mike Hussey yesterday defended Buchanan and denied Australian cricket was becoming too arrogant.
As they prepared for the Boxing Day Test against India, Gilchrist and Hussey spoke glowingly about Buchanan’s input and defended his reputation as coach.
“I love the bloke (Buchanan) and everyone knows that Warnie and John have never seen eye to eye, so I don’t think we’ve found out anything new there,” Gilchrist said. “Warnie’s got a strong opinion on a lot of things and, as we all know, he’s one of the greatest players that’s ever been.
“Whatever his opinion is his opinion and it doesn’t necessarily reflect the whole team. I don’t believe the team is arrogant and I certainly don’t believe that the administration’s arrogant at all.”
Hussey said he and Buchanan thought about cricket in a similar vein.
“I had a good relationship with John, myself, we were similar sorts of characters and he knew what made me tick,” Hussey said. “For me personally, I got on very well with him. It’s just Warnie’s opinion and that’s fine.”