Warne rules out Test comeback ... again

In case anyone is in any doubt: Shane Warne is not about to return to Test action. Despite denials over a couple of weeks, Warne cannot escape the speculation he will make himself available for the 2009 Ashes, especially after Stuart MacGill's retirement in Antigua on Tuesday.

"I've got no interest at all at this stage," Warne told AAP. "I'm very happily retired, I'm comfortable where I am at the moment."

Warne was back in Melbourne following his tournament-winning stint as captain-coach with the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. He will be in Victoria until going to the United States in August to play poker.

Last month Warne listed a long set of conditions that would lead him to "consider" lining up for the Ashes. Despite MacGill's exit, he has not changed his mind.

"I actually said I was happily retired and if Stuart MacGill broke his leg - which he hasn't, he's retired - and there was no other spinner in Australia and if Ricky Ponting asked me, I'd consider it," Warne said. "If that's coming back out of retirement, I'm not sure. I don't think it is."

Ponting has not called Warne. "I'm sure if I rang him and said, `I'd like you to come back in South Africa and India,' he would probably put his hand up," Ponting said in the Courier Mail. "Warney made it pretty clear that if there was absolutely no one else around, he might consider it.

"I haven't entertained the idea of asking Shane to come out of retirement, no. He's probably hoping I have, but I haven't just yet."

MacGill exited the Test scene after the drawn second Test against West Indies, finishing with 208 wickets in 44 games, and Beau Casson is the leading candidate to replace him in Barbados on June 12. Warne managed 708 in 145 matches before bowing out after Australia cleanswept England in the 2006-07 Ashes.