At the moment this is just a speculation…
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Warne set to retire, say reports**
Shane Warne is being tipped to announce his retirement on Thursday from international cricket.
According to reports in Australia, the 37-year-old leg-spinner will walk away from top-level cricket after the fifth Ashes Test, to work in television.
Warne is one wicket away from becoming the first bowler in Test history to claim 700 wickets, with the fourth Test starting on 26 December.
TV station Channel Nine says Warne will hold a press conference on Thursday.
Cricket Australia says it does not have any plans for a Warne press conference, but Warne has worked part-time for Channel Nine in the past, and the TV channel says the legendary spinner will announce his retirement.
Some reports also suggested fast bowler Glenn McGrath would follow Warne into retirement but Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young commented: "There is nothing we can say.
“Those two players are the masters of their own destiny and the owners of their own futures and when they announce decisions on their futures is up to them.”
Warne said in his column in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph on Wednesday that he had no plans to quit.
But the Sydney Morning Herald claimed he was retiring to become a television commentator and the Daily Telegraph subsequently carried the retirement reports on its website.
Warne’s Hampshire team-mate Shaun Udal said he had not heard from the Australian great but hoped the retirement would only be from the international game.
“If this is true, I would love to see him finish the next two or three years with Hampshire,” said Udal.
“But I’m sure Warnie will go out in his own inimitable style.”
There was something special about him right from the word go
Allan Border
The fourth Ashes Test takes place on Warne’s home turf, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and is expected to break the previous attendance records of 90,800 for a single day and 350,354 for the whole match.
Warne, who was named one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the century in 2000, became the first ever bowler to reach 600 wickets during the 2005 Ashes series.
He has 25 more Test scalps than his nearest rival, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, although he has played 33 more games. McGrath is next in line with 555.
Former Australia captain and Allan Border was surprised by the news Warne may be about to end his career.
“He’s in superb touch, he’s bowling well, physically he’s very well. I just got the inkling he was even considering one more tilt at England in England and that would see him out,” said Border.
“It’s caught everyone by surprise. I suppose there’s a lot of innuendo about what the reasons are behind the scenes but just a bit of a state of shock here.”
Warne has played 143 Tests since his debut against India in 1992.
It was not until 1993 that Warne was considered world class, when his first ball in an Ashes series bamboozled England’s Mike Gatting at Old Trafford.
His best figures came against England in Brisbane in 1994, when he took 8-71 and he has 186 English wickets in 34 Ashes Tests, including 40 wickets in the 2005 series.
Border added: "There was something special about him right from the word go. We just knew there was something about the kid that turned up to bowl leg-spinners.
“He got 1-150 in his first Test match so you wouldn’t predict 698 wickets more to his Test career at that point but we knew he had something special.”
