Warne leads search for the next English spinner

Shane Warne has launched a new spin-bowling initiative © Getty Images

After another weekend of lurid tabloid revelations, Shane Warne was back doing what he does best today - spinning a cricket ball, inspiring a group of kids, and talking up Australia's Ashes prospects. Speaking at the launch of a new spin-bowling initiative in Bethnal Green in East London, Warne stressed that the Aussies were ideally placed to regain the urn, and warned England not to muddle their priorities in their bid for further glory this winter.

"You guys in particular are pretty obsessed with the Ashes," he told reporters. "You've got this summer to get through first, so I wouldn't get too far ahead of yourselves. The Ashes are at the back of everyone's minds, but Australia are in a very good position. Beating South Africa 3-0 away was an excellent achievement, we've got blokes who've found form with bat and ball, and we couldn't have done anything more since losing the Ashes."

Warne gave particularly short shrift to comments made by his former captain, Steve Waugh, who told The Daily Mail on Monday that Australia had been too friendly with the England players last summer, and as a consequence, lost their aura of invincibility. "I don't think that had anything to do with it," Warne retorted sharply. "If we'd batted better we might have been okay. The way we play is our style of play, and it's been pretty successful except for one series. I wouldn't get carried away about what Steve Waugh's got to say, it's easy to sit back when you're not playing now and say you should be doing this and you should be doing that.

"We missed out on one series and were beaten by a better side," Warne added. "England outplayed us, and all credit to them, as we've said four million times! Hopefully they'll be saying the same about us at the end of next summer."

Not only did Warne refuse to apologise for Australia's attitude to the 2005 Ashes, he added that the spirit between the sides had been one of the single most important factors in raising the profile of the game to new heights - a fact not lost on the 25 or so pupils sat on the floor in front of him, who were about to be given a masterclass in the mysterious art of legspin.

"We need to make sure that kids stay involved in the game of cricket," Warne explained, "and that's the duty of all the captains in international cricket, and of all the players who are playing in a positive manner. We've not seen many draws in Test cricket lately, while in the Ashes last summer, one of the things that really captured the imagination was the spirit in which it was played, those images of shaking hands and clapping guys off who made hundreds and took five wickets. That's what really put cricket on the map again."

Warne's current mission is to keep the game on the map - even if that means helping out his arch-rivals, England. In signing a new five-year deal with Mitre, he has given a further indication of his longevity and stressed he would "never say never" when it came to another tour of England in 2009, when he would be coming up for 40 years old.

In the long term, however, Warne is beginning to think about his legacy, and to that end, his involvement with Capital Kids Cricket, a London-based charity that is supported by the Lord's Taverners, could provide the role-model that English spinners so desperately need in order to come through the system.

"I like to think there are young cricketers out there who want to be like me," he said modestly. "It's my duty to keep that spin-bowling brotherhood going all around the world, and if [this initiative] produces a wristie who plays for England, we'll all have done our jobs well, and I'll be pretty proud."

Warne cited various factors why spinners tend not to thrive in England. The weather was the most obvious reason, but so too was a tendency towards unsympathetic and negative leadership. "Too many captains in county cricket prefer to revert back to medium pacers with one slip and a ring of fielders, and defend," he explained. "They might take 0 for 25 in ten overs, but I'd sooner see 1 for 50 in a spell that changes the course of a game.

"As a young kid it can be very frustrating, embarrassing even, if you drop one halfway down the wicket, and it's hit for six out of the ground and your mates take the mickey. Sometimes you've got to be pretty strong, because spinners need a lot of love, especially from their captains.

"There are two things you like to see as a player and a spectator," Warne continued. "One is a fast bowler running in and trying to knock people's heads off, with Flintoff taking them on on the hook. And the other is a spinner bowling with Pietersen trying to slog them for six. I've been hit for more sixes than anyone in international cricket. You always get a ball back, and another chance to get them out the next time."

Of his untimely appearance in the weekend papers, Warne remained understandably tight-lipped. "Private life should be private life," he stressed. "I'm here for cricket, and to talk about all the good things in the game." And to watch him in the nets afterwards, demonstrating the full nuances of his art to his young audience, with his wrist appearing to rotate through 180 degrees as he mixed vast legbreaks with flippers, topspinners and googlies, was to be reminded of the real reason of why he is still the brightest star in the game.

"Everyone needs heroes," Warne emphasised. With due respect to Ashley Giles, English spinners have struggled without an idol for years. Now, however, the best in the business is offering his services to England. If anyone is going to capture the imagination of the 25 on show in Bethnal Green, or the 100 young spinners who are set to attend an exclusive coaching day in September, no-one will capture it better than Warne.