Shane Warne “Would Be Up There Sledging Me Now”: Former England captain Nasser Hussain

Former England captain Nasser Hussain gave a tribute to the legendary Shane Warne in his own style. Remembering some of the on-field battles with the great leg-spinner, Hussain said Warne would be “sledging him” from up there. Warne died in Thailand on March 4 at the age of 52, sending the cricketing world in mourning. “He’d be up there sledging me now, that is for certain. He won’t be smiling, he’d be sledging me,” Hussain said in a video shared by Sky Sports.

The former right-handed batter who played 17 Tests and 10 ODIs against Warne between 1993 and 2003, recalled an ODI against Australia in 1999 in which Warne was captaining the hosts in Sydney and ended up getting the better of Hussain after a war of words between the two.

“1999, were we? Sydney. Bumble (David Lloyd) was our coach we were absolutely coasting. I was at the crease, Shane was bowling. He was captain, stand-in captain. He was abusing me like he always did. I was saying ‘enjoy your last game Shane, you’d never captain Australia again’.15 minutes later, I was walking off stumped Gilchrist bowled Warne. Shane gave me a big send-off. I can’t tell you some of the words he said,” Hussain added.

Hussain’s wicket proved to be a turning point in that match as the England lower-middle crumbled after that, falling 10 short of the 233-run target.

Warne led Australia in 11 ODIs but was never appointed as a full-time skipper.

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“But I’d be fair with Shane. If you’d get runs against him, he’d be the first one to walk up to you on the dressing and say ‘you played pretty well mate, that was a serious knock’. Shane played tough on the field but Shane was also very fair and always very fair,” Hussain added.

Warne retired as one of the greatest ever cricketers to have ever played the game. He had 708 Test wickets to his name and picked up 293 wickets in ODIs.