Shane Warne left very little to chance throughout his illustrious cricket career, but despite his tremendous achievements, there has always been one lingering question.
What kind of captain would he have been for Australia if he was afforded the opportunity to lead his nation on a full-time basis?
It is one of the great what-ifs from the halcyon era of Australian cricket in the 90s and 2000s, with Warne overlooked for the captaincy on a number of occasions. He never led Australia in any of his 145 career Tests, only leading the country in 11 ODIs in the summer of 1998-99. Australia won all bar one match under Warne’s leadership.
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Warne was promoted to the vice-captaincy after skipper Mark Taylor’s retirement in 1999, deputising for Taylor’s replacement Steve Waugh, and seemed like he’d be next in line to lead Australia once the ageing Waugh retired.
However, an off-field scandal saw Warne stripped of the vice-captaincy in 2000 and he was consequently overlooked for Ricky Ponting when Waugh was replaced just two years later.
Despite never leading Australia in a full-time capacity, many believe Warne would’ve been a strong skipper due to his stints leading English county side Hampshire, Victoria, as well as the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL and the Melbourne Stars in the BBL.
According to former Test captain Ian Chappell, Warne would have made a fine leader for Australia, had he been given the opportunity.
“He’d have been very good because he was an attacking, aggressive cricketer, and that’s a good start to being a good captain,” Chappell told Nine’s Sport Sunday.
“When he did the job, he did it very well, I mean what did win, 10 out of 11 ODIs as captain, and he captained other teams and captained them very successfully. Anyone with half a brain figured yes he would be very good.”
Warne’s leadership credentials were also endorsed by Taylor, although he admitted the late great may have struggled with the off-field responsibilities of a skipper.
Warne became renowned for his opinions as a commentator in his post-playing days, and Chappell, who shared the box with him for Nine, noticed something in particular about his analysis.
“The only thing I’d say is, I just felt at times with his commentary that he was trying to convince people that he would’ve been a good captain, and he didn’t need to do that because anyone who knew the game knew that he would’ve been good,” he said.
“OK, he didn’t get the opportunity, but a lot of blokes (don’t). I used to get embarrassed talking to Keith Miller because I captained Australia and he hadn’t, and that was ridiculous.
“It was a bit the same with Shane. You’re sort of looking at him thinking, ‘well he should’ve captained Australia’, but he didn’t.”