Benaud calls on Warne to keep spinning

Richie Benaud, the former Australian captain, has urged Shane Warne to prolong his Test career until the next Ashes series in England in 2009.

Warne, the most successful bowler in Test history with 651 wickets in 133 games, will turn 40 during that tour. "I was talking to him the other day and said to him 'You can do this'," Benaud told BBC TV. "He is bowling better now than I've seen him for years and years. It's been wonderful to watch."

Warne took 40 wickets in a losing cause during this summer's Ashes series and earlier this week established a new record for the most Test wickets in a calendar year when he surpassed Dennis Lillee's total of 85 in 1981.

Benaud believes if Warne continues his policy of not playing one-day internationals, despite pressure for him to relent in time for next year's World Cup, he will still be a force to be reckoned with when they next visit England. "I told him 'They thought they'd seen the back of you, now why don't you give some serious thought to going across there for the next Ashes battle?'.

"He looked at me for a long time and just turned and said 'Thanks', though whether that's 'Thanks, but no thanks' or 'Thanks, thanks', I don't know," said Benaud, who called time on his own Test career at the age of 33. Warne had a number of injuries between 1998 and 2001, and was banned for a year in 2003 after failing a drugs test.

But he remains at the peak of his powers and confirmed he wants to help Australia regain the Ashes on home soil next winter. "My record in my last 40-50 Tests has probably been better than at any stage of my career," he said recently. "If I'm enjoying my cricket and bowling injury-free, then I hope I am playing in the next Ashes series. I have no immediate plans to retire. I'm enjoying my cricket, simple as that."