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Dropped from a height, Warne wants to quit

He's played 71 Tests. Taken 317 wickets, including five-for hauls 14 times and ten-fors four times. He's been the premier match-winner for his side, for a long long time now.

And he's been dropped, for lack of form, for the first time in seven years.

To look for the silver lining, at least he did not suffer the indignity of having to carry out the drinks -- that honour going to Andy Bichel -- as Australia went into the must-win fourth Test against the West Indies.

Australian captain Steve Waugh looked as though he was announcing the death of a loved one, as he announced that Warne had been dropped. Further, he indicated that during the selection committee meeting, Warne -- in his capacity as team vice-captain -- had argued strenuously for his own retention, before being outvoted by his co-selectors, coach Geoff Marsh and captain Waugh himself.

``He did tell us that he was ready and fired up for a big one, and of course we believed him,'' Waugh said. ``But Stuart would probably say the same thing, too. Shane didn't plead his case. He just put across his argument. He accepts it. It's a real tough call obviously. It's not easy for a great player like that to accept that he's not playing, but he accepted it very well.''

And in the aftermath, Warne is talking of ending his Test career. Whether it is an intimation of mortality on the part of a bowler who, experts said, looked at one stage to have the potential to go past the 500-wicket mark in Tests, or a knee-jerk reaction, we will not know.

``It wasn't easy,'' Waugh, in a classic bit of understatement, said of the decision to axe Warne. ``It came down to who we thought was bowling a little better at this stage. I think Stuart (McGill) looks more likely to take wickets at the moment.

``It's basically a one-off Test for us. I'd love to have played Warney. He's been there, done that. He's taken 317 wickets. He's a great bowler. But the head had to rule over the heart. Geoff and I both had the gut feeling that Stuart was the right man for this time. That's not to say that won't change later on, or that they won't play together again. It's a tough decision, but that's what it came down to.''

That Warne would be dropped was pretty much inevitable. Since his return from shoulder surgery, for the fifth Test against England in Sydney in January 1999, Warne has played four Tests, and taken four for 378. In the ongoing series against the West Indies, he has taken 2/268 from 83.5 overs.

The real indicator to how badly off form Warne is, is afforded by his inability to strike in the tour games. Three practise games have seen Warne take 9 wickets, while his rival, Stuart McGill, picked up 20.

But perhaps the final straw came in the second innings of the Barbados Test. Warne, whose knack of exploiting a wearing pitch has contributed much to Australia's success in recent times, had tailormade conditions -- a wearing wicket, plenty of runs on the board, and once the initial breakthroughs had been made, a brittle lineup to bowl against.

He went wicketless.

"He bowled accurately but not dangerously," said Steve Waugh. "I thought that the big occasion of the Barbados Test would bring the best out of him. Instead it brought the best out of Brian Lara."

"I'm going to have a serious think about what I want to do in the future," the 30-year-old Warne said after watching the first day's play in the fourth and final Test.

"It's basically up to me which way I want to go. I'll think about that during the next week. I'm not sure yet.

"I don't think I've been bowling badly at all. I just haven't got wickets," he said. "Unfortunately, you lose two Tests in a row and someone has to go. In this case, it's been me in this Test match."

Warne admitted, however, that he is still a long way from being at his best. "I know that when Shane Warne is at his best, he's the best leg-spinner in the world. If I can get back to that form, then I have a big role to play. But if I don't think I can, then I'll have to seriously look at my future."

Warne indicated that he would be looking at his own performance in the one-day series to follow this Test, plus the World Cup, before deciding about his future.

"Hopefully, I'll get another chance maybe," Warne said, indicating that he was hoping to get back to form in the coming weeks. "The next Test match is a long way down the track, another five or six months."

Warne refused to use his shoulder injury to explain his lack of form. "You can go through all those sorts of excuses," he said. "But throughout my whole career, I've never ever used excuses, the simple fact is I am not bowling as well as Shane Warne can."

Those who have been watching his performances in the West Indies are unanimous that his bowling at this point is pretty ordinary. The flipper, a lethal weapon in the Warne armoury, is completely gone, and the huge turn he employed to bamboozle batsmen, especially when bowling around the wicket into the rough, is also a thing of history -- in fact, Warne noticeably didn't go round the wicket much in the Windies.

At delivery his feet are more open and his body does not turn as much as it used to -- the deadly pivot is now a matter of fond memory. With the result that his deliveries are not falling away to leg before ripping across the right-hander.

Warne made it a point to mention that he didn't hold a grudge against his captain for voting against him. ``It's Steve's job to come up with what he thinks is the best team to win, he wouldn't want to be the captain that's lost the series,'' Warne said. ``I'm good friends with Steve, and I don't think this strains the friendship. I respect his decision."

However, he made no secret of the fact that being out of the team was hurting. ``As a senior player, I thought I was a pretty big part of the team but unfortunately that's not the way it falls this game so hopefully I'll get another chance.''

Coach Geoff Marsh appears to think he will. ``Why would he retire?'' Marsh asked. ``The bottom line is that he's just had a huge disappointment and he probably needs a few days to think things through properly."

Marsh indicated that the team management had agonised about the decision to drop Warne. While the ace leggie went into the nets and ripped his legspinners down as though trying to prove a point, Marsh and Waugh sat around, discussing the bowler's future.

``Me and Steve sat around all afternoon talking about it, it was just a nightmare,'' Marsh later said.

The last word on the subject was spoken by Brian Lara, the man responsible for batting the Windies to two consequtive wins and, in the process, sealing Warne's fate by playing him with almost contemptuous ease. ``It's going to be a hard time for Shane," Lara said. "He's a world class bowler and I'm sure he will find it strange watching a Test instead of playing. Everybody says it, but he really is a world-class bowler and I'm sure he will be back playing again soon.''

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