Warne starts out on the comeback trail

Some ten months after he was banned, Shane Warne is beginning the process of planning his comeback, and Terry Jenner, his coach and mentor, is hoping that he might start his rehabilitation as early as this weekend.

Both Warne and Jenner will be in Adelaide for the second Test, and Jenner admitted that he is ready to roll. "I'll have a bag of balls in the boot," Jenner said, "and when he wants to release the cobwebs, we'll have a crack somewhere."

Warne hopes to bowl at former team-mates Mark Taylor and Ian Healy, and all that remains is to find the place. The indoor nets at the Adelaide Oval would be the preferred choice, but were that to prove a little too close to home for Cricket Australia, then an alternative venue would not pose any issues for Warne. Cricket Australia, however, explained that Warne could hire facilities as long as those facilities were also available to the general public.

But Jenner acknowledged that a session at the Adelaide Oval might not be a realistic aim. "It's unfortunately not as easy as it should be," he said. "Shane's intentions are good but if they put too many spokes in the wheel, I don't know what to do. It's not just finding a venue, it's Shane finding time away from the commentary and other things, something that fits in for him and for me. But if it's at all possible, we're going to have a bowl."

Warne is especially keen to dust off the cobwebs following comments from Trevor Hohns, Australia's chairman of selectors, to the effect that he had not been ruled out of the reckoning for the squad to tour Sri Lanka which is announced shortly after his ban ends.

Jenner believes that Warne is capable of finding his form by then, although he advised against trying to do too much too soon. "I think, sensibly, he will ease himself into it," Jenner explained. "The selectors have said they may need to have a look at him in a game or two, so that's what he's gearing towards, I'm sure."