Warne not worried by fitness jibes

Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne returned home to Melbourne on Monday looking tired and beaten after an Indian tour where coach John Buchanan had questioned his fitness.

"I gave 100 per cent and that's all I can do. They just played spinners so well over there," Warne told reporters at Melbourne airport.

Australia lost the Test series 2-1 as Warne, who missed the home series against West Indies which Australia won 5-0, struggled in the Indian heat with 10 wickets for 505 runs.

Warne, 31, went into the arduous Indian tour lacking match fitness and then battled a finger injury as India took control of the series in the second Test,.

"I thought we fought back very well to be 2-1 down in the one-day series and win the last couple of games.

"It finished off okay in the one-dayers, the last Test I was a bit disappointed with."

WARNE OVERWEIGHT

Warne, who has taken an Australian record of 376 Test wickets, said he was looking forward to six weeks of rest and time with his family before Australia's five-Test tour of England which starts in late May.

He left the airport before he could be quizzed on his reaction to a report in an Indian magazine that former Australian coach Bobby Simpson had called him overweight.

"Shane is now overweight and his action has deteriorated," Simpson was quoted as writing in the Sportstar.

Buchanan said of Warne after Australia's loss in the second Test in Calcutta that he was "not one of the fittest characters running around in world cricket".

Buchanan had suggested Warne was no certainty to be selected for the series-deciding third Test and that he wanted "11 blokes who can give five days of hard cricket and not be affected by any sort of physical limitations".

"Warney's quite distressed when he comes off the field all the time. This last Test was a real test of his skill and mental capacity to handle things," Buchanan said.

Warne said on Monday: "John Buchanan came and spoke to me and just said he was trying to fire me up and apologised.

"I said he would probably need to get to know me a little bit better," Warne added.

"It's not unusual for people to be pretty harsh so no, I'm used to it by now.

"That all got sorted out."

Mail Cricket Editor