23 Mar 2013

Warne blasts John Buchanan again

12:56 pm on 23 March 2013

Legspin great Shane Warne has continued his attacks on New Zealand director of coaching John Buchanan, saying the former Australian cricket coach has no idea about coaching.

Warne says coaching is for children, not for adults, telling Indian reporters in Delhi that international cricketers shouldn't coach as it's for 12-year-olds and the Australian team he was part of hardly needed a good coach, as even his 13-year-old son could decide when to bowl Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee or Jason Gillespie.

Warne retired from test cricket in 2007 with a then-world record of 708 test wickets, while World Cup-winning and Ashes-winning coach Buchanan stepped down later that year.

The coaching issue has been in the spotlight in the past two weeks.

Australian coach/selector Mickey Arthur banned four players from the third test in Mohali for failing to deliver homework assignments on time.

But Warne, who counts Clarke among his closest friends, refuses to stick the boot into Arthur as others have done, saying Australia now has many inexperienced players in its squad and the teams he was part of took two tours in 1998 and 2001 to realise how to win in India, in 2004.

Warne says it would be unfair to blame Arthur for Australia's poor performance.