In a rare interview just months before his shock death, legendary spinner Shane Warne revealed why his approach to being a professional only saw him take an ice bath on one occasion.
Warne’s life was cut short at just 52 years of age when he was found unresponsive in his Koh Samui villa over the weekend.
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Late last year, Warne joined Ange Postecoglou, an Australian football manager who’s currently at Celtic, for a one-on-one chat about all things football and cricket.
Postecoglou, who led Australia to back-to-back FIFA World Cup qualifications, is now in charge at Celtic where the team currently sits atop the Scottish Premiership table.
Warne was a notable fan of the Glasgow giants.
During the interview, Postecoglou challenged Warne on how we would cope as an Australian cricket player in today’s game, with the sport now dominated by the T20 format with competitions all around the world.
The 145-Test legend conceded today’s approach towards sports science would challenge him as a player, having been exposed to the trend since his move into coaching.
“I often think how I would approach it,” Warne told Celtic’s YouTube channel. “I was pretty much best when fresh. I wasn’t big with all the sports science side of things.
“Watching today, the matchups and all these things, the data – as a head coach I’ve experienced it, working through that I’ve said, that’s all fine, but where is the feel for the game?
“I’m happy to listen to you in sports science and say, ‘this guy is bowling a lot of balls, he’s 50/50, he’s bordering on his red zone’. And I’m going, ‘Ok, we will get someone else’.
“Then they go ‘Hang on, he’s our best player’. I said, ‘Well this is an important game, how do you say this one game is just as important as the next one. They’re all important.’
“So, I struggle a little bit with the sports science.”
During a 2002 Test against Pakistan in Dubai in extreme conditions, Warne took eight wickets in a match which saw the hosts dismissed for 59 and 53, which at the time was their lowest ever Test score.
Warne said that after the match it was the only time he ever had an ice bath, revealing how he cared more about his individual performance rather than “modern-day recovery” and “data”.
“I only ever did one ice bath [as a player]. We were playing in Dubai in (2002/03)… it was 56 degrees. It should’ve been called off, it was that hot,” Warne explained.
“A couple of the fast bowlers had the jelly legs after one over. They had to go off, it was that hot.
“We came in afterwards [to the ice bath], when we jumped in a few of the guys started putting the beers in. It was like having a beer in the ice bath.
“This modern-day recovery, matchups, data, sports science, I’m not sure. I would’ve said just let me be.
“If I didn’t perform, then you can have a go at me. I always believed there are a few things really important to reach the top. A lot of people talk about ‘in the zone’.
“To me, ‘in the zone’ is 100 per cent concentration on what you have to do right now. Right now, what does the team need you to do.
“The only way you can get into that zone is if you’ve cleared everything out before you had to play.
“There was a physical preparation I always had to do… but the mental side, I think we’ve only touched the surface of the mental side of things, of how to approach sport.
“Sometimes we fill out players with too much stuff, we don’t let them go and play.”
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