Shane Warne says he is not interested in becoming India's next coach; clarifies rumours

What's the story?

Former Australian great, Shane Warne was quoted saying that he is too expensive for the BCCI to be able to afford him as the coach of the Indian cricket team. He also rubbished all the rumours about him wishing to coach Team India. The statements were made after stories about his interest in coaching the Indian team started doing rounds in the media.

He was earlier quoted by Mid-Day as saying, “I am very expensive. I don't think they can afford me. Virat Kohli and me can have a good partnership, but as I said, I am very, very expensive.”

Completely disappointed at the false news, Warne wanted to make it clear that none of this was said to anyone. He took to Twitter to mark all claims regarding his words as false.

In case you didn't know...

Anil Kumble's one-year contract as the coach of the Indian team is set to end later this month and the position was made open by the BCCI last month following reports of a rift between Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Kumble. However, both of them have denied any such differences.

After receiving a number of applications for the post, the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising of Indian cricketing greats Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxmansix have shortlisted six candidates which include Anil Kumble, Virender Sehwag, Ton Moody, Richard Pybus, Lalchand Rajput and Dodda Ganesh.

The heart of the matter

News about Warne wishing to coach Indian team started spreading amidst all these perplexing processes carried out by the board to select the next coach. This is why the former Australian leg-spinner took to Twitter to clarify any confusions regarding the statements that he has made.

In his first tweet, he mentioned that he was in an elevator when someone asked him if he was willing to “put his hat in the ring” to which he replied that India can't afford him with “tongue in the cheek”.

It is thus very clear that he meant others to take it as a joke.

Soon his second tweet followed which expressed his disappointment in journalism as news about him wanting to coach team India and that he will work well with Kohli grabbed a lot of eyeballs. He cleared the air by saying that the entire story is made up and he never spoke any of these words to anyone.

What's next?

Warne never sent in any application for the job before the deadline which ended on June 1^st. Hence, it isn't possible for him to be considered for the position. BCCI can select the new head coach from the five other shortlisted applicants or will continue with Anil Kumble

Author's take

The position of head coach of the Indian Cricket team and controversies never seem to drift apart from each other. Every day a new story turns up to entangle a simple process. It is definitely taking away the focus from appointing the right person from the pool of applicants thereby compromising with the seriousness of the situation.

As far as Warne is concerned, he must be aware of the monetary dominance of BCCI in the cricket world. Hypothetically, if Warne truly held this opinion then it would just showcase his unawareness. However, his words in his first tweet made it very clear that he was not serious about the remarks. Thereby, accusing him of the same deserves his expressed disappointment.

What Warne needs to look at right now is the army of aggressive fans spamming his twitter account if his humour failed to reach them.