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29 March 2024

Warne and Murali go head-to-head in Big Bash

Shane Warne practices his bowling during a Melbourne Stars media announcement at Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia. (GETTY)

Published
By Agencies

Australian cricket legend Shane Warne on Tuesday said he could not say when he would finally retire, as he prepares to captain a domestic Twenty20 team five years after leaving the international scene.

Warne returned to training on Tuesday ahead of the BBL, which will kick off on December 7 when the Melbourne Stars play the Melbourne Renegades which has Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan.

The 43-year-old leg-spinner announced his retirement in 2007, only to return as captain and coach of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for four years, winning the inaugural tournament in 2008.

Warne appeared to bring down the curtain on his stellar, two-decade cricket career at the IPL in May 2011, but went on to join the Australian Twenty20 team Melbourne Stars for the Big Bash League's inaugural season the same year and has continued playing with them.

"I have to never say 'never' because in 2007 I said I'd never play cricket again," Warne told reporters in Melbourne.

"But 18 months later the IPL came up, so that was something that interested me, to captain/coach and do it the way I always thought it should be done."

Warne, who remains Australia's highest ever wicket-taker with 708 Test scalps, said each time he thought he might have played for the last time, another competition came along that sparked his interest.

"I do love cricket, I'm passionate about the game and if I can help Australian cricket in any way, shape or form then I will," he said.

West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels has signed with Melbourne Renegades for the second season of the Big Bash League.

Samuels joins the former Sri Lankan offspinner Muralitharan as the Renegades’ overseas players for the season.
 
Samuels is fresh from a successful World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, where he finished the overall third-highest run-scorer with 230 runs with three fifties at a strike-rate of 132.94.