from cricinfo
It has been revealed the reasons why in 2000 Cricket Australia’s board striped Shane Warne of the vice-captaincy and thus his hope that he would ever gain the captaincy of the Australian team. The reasons given by the board were:
* Taught a lesson
* Leadership brings other responsibilities
* Given opportunities and shown that he can’t
* Not this one issue (texting an English nurse)
* History of incidents
* Catalogue of reckless conduct
* Responsibility to maintain public confidence
I could of guessed that the reasons for Warne’s lose of the vice-captaincy included these kinds of incidents listed.
When Mark Taylor retired, Steve Waugh was made captain and Warne vice-captain of the Australian Test team. Being appointed vice-captain has traditionally meant that you are next inline to the captaincy, then in 2000 during the captaincy of Waugh, Adam Gilchrist was made Waugh’s deputy at Warne’s expense.
The fact the Warne’s off field actions resulted in the lose of the on field (vice) captaincy brings up the issue of whether sports people’s off field actions should influence on field selections. In general I think that people’s private lives should be just that private, but Warne’s private life was not private at all, so I can see why Cricket Australia’s board striped him of the leadership role. Captain of the Australian cricket team is far more than just a being an on field leader for the team. They are a very public off field figure, it has been said to be the most prestigious job in the country. I don’t think any one doubts that Warne’s has the cricket brain that is required to captain a national team. I would say he has one of the best cricket brain in the game. Often at an important point in a test there is an on field conference between a number of the senior player to talk tactics, for the Australian Test Team, this has normaly been Ponting, Gilchrist and Warne, despite the fact that he is not a captain. If all media attention on Warne had concerned his cricketing abilities I believe he would of been Test Captain.