London, July 27(ANI): Former Australian leg spinner Shane Warne is of the view that captains must be allowed to run the show, whether it is on the field or off it.
Now in the twilight of what has been a very rewarding cricketing career of almost 20 years on the international stage, he says one of the decisions that motivated him to retire from the top level was the fact that coaches were being appointed for every aspect of the game.
"I retired from Test cricket so I could have more time with my kids, but I'd also grown tired of this other stuff you get in the game. It's called the 'professional era' but I don't think it works very well," The Sun quoted Warne, as saying.
"You have a coach for this, a coach for that, you have got too many recovery sessions, too much mental stuff, too many team meetings, too much training for training's sake, and it all takes away from the actual sport, " he added.
Talking about his Indian Premier League (IPL) experience, Warne said it was a revelation of sorts.
Skippering and coaching the Rajasthan Royals to victory in the inaugural IPL, he says reminded him of what it was that he loved about playing cricket.
"In almost 20 years of playing the game at the highest level, I don't think I've ever experienced the intensity and passion from a crowd like we had in the IPL, except for maybe the Ashes. The beauty of the competition was that I could bowl to Sachin Tendulkar in Rajasthan and a 70,000 home crowd would be cheering for me to knock over an icon of world cricket that is Indian. That was unbelievable," Warne said.
He says that the team he was given was a motley crew, some good players but also a few who had won competitions to earn a place in the squad. They were thrashed in their first game and nobody foresaw them contending.
Warne said that he never thought of himself as one of the greatest bowler the world has ever seen. He said he was determined to run the Royals the way he believed cricket teams should be run.
"To me, the captain must run the show. You train hard and then get out there and play. In Rajasthan, if we had a day off there were no meetings or any of that rubbish. If people needed to go to the gym or wanted a session in the pool, that was their business. When we weren't training, we sat around and spoke about cricket, how to construct an over, how we would beat the next opposition, and we went from being no-hopers to champions."
Now he says he is in better shape than he has been for a long time and feels he is in a good place at the moment.
"My kids are unreal; I've got a good relationship with my ex-wife, Simone. I've always been a good father. I may not have been a wonderful husband, but even during the difficult times, Simone always said I was a good father. Brooke is 11 now, Jackson 9, Summer 7, I love them to death, would do anything for them."
He says looks forward to the Champions League with the Royals and to next season's IPL.
After that, he says that if he stays healthy and can keep running the team his way, there might not be any reason to stop, because his love for the game is undiminished. (ANI)
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