IPL: Shane Warne sheds light on his methods as Rajasthan Royals captain

Former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne opened up about his leadership methods as the captain of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, on a podcast with Aussie all-rounder, Shane Watson.

Shane Warne was named captain of a young and largely inexperienced Rajasthan Royals team in the first season of the IPL. They got off to the worst of starts in the first game with a 9-wicket defeat to Delhi Daredevils.

“There were so many things that went wrong that day (in the Royals’ first game). And I’m not sure if you (Watson) remember, but I remember walking into the dressing room afterwards. And there was just doom and gloom. And I think a lot of the players expected a rocket like… jeez come on this was rubbish. I said ‘Boys, no one died, we’re all okay. We’ll get to the next game’,” Shane Warne recalled.

Shane Warne believes youngsters were key to IPL win

The Jaipur-based franchise would turn things around in the very next match, and go on to win the IPL that year. The then-Rajasthan Royals captain credited the way the players came together as a team as an essential factor in their tournament win.

Shane Warne also suggested that the role played by the young players of his team in taking up responsibility also played a crucial role in the team’s success in the IPL. The legendary leg-spinner believes that allowing his players to make their own choices helped them understand the importance of responsibility, and that this was a step in the right direction.

“The way the boys gelled together and stuff. We won that game, we went on to win the final (of the IPL), which was awesome. But I think the key was to understand what made people tick. To make it fun. To make it the environment that everyone wants. To treat everyone the same.because a lot of these guys hadn’t… Some of them were 17 and hadn’t even played first-class cricket,” Shane Warne said.

“I remember that year, I gave things optional. I wanted to put responsibility on the player. So I’d say everything is optional. If you want to train, train. If you don’t, don’t. I found that people trained harder than (when) being told what to do,” Shane Warne added.

The IPL-winning captain also spoke about the importance of backing a youngster in the team, citing how Allan Border trusted Shane Warne with the ball in his early days. The former Rajasthan Royals captain believes that a youngster playing on a stage like the IPL for the first time would need to know that he has the support of the captain.

“If you know you’ve got the support of your captain… I know as a young player, when Allan Border threw me the ball at the MCG, he backed me. And that made me feel good. Whereas if he looked around and thought, ‘I’m not going to bowl him, he’s going to get whacked,’ you know that yourself if the captain’s not backing you,” Shane Warne said.

The 1999 World Cup winner believes that there is a lot more to a leader than on-field captaincy, and a lot of it comes with experience. Warne considers himself lucky to have captained elsewhere before coming to Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.