“If you were friends with Warne…”: Anil Kumble once recalled the ‘untold secret’ of Australian cricket team of not sledging Shane Warne’s friends

Anil Kumble and Shane Warne are arguably two of the greatest leg-spinners to have played the game of cricket. Warne is the 2nd highest wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket, whereas Kumble comes at the 4th position in the list. Both of them made the batters dance to their rhythms.

Indian cricket has been blessed with some great spinners, but Kumble is referred to as the greatest match-winner of the Indian team. Players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir etc. have all spoken highly about the former Indian leg-spinner. He is the only Indian to surpass the mark of 600 Test wickets.

Warne, on the other hand, was the first bowler in the history of Test cricket to achieve the milestone of 700 Test wickets. The Australian great passed away last year, and it was a big shock. Warne was said to be one of the greatest readers of the game as well.

Anil Kumble once recalled the ‘untold secret’ of Australian cricket team about Shane Warne

Kumble once recalled how Warne used to take care of his friends even if they played for the opponent teams. Kumble said that there was an “untold secret” in the Australian cricket team that they will not sledge any of Warne’s friends. The former Indian captain further said that he had a good relation with Warne, and the Aussies never used to unsettle him with banter.

Kumble had a lot of praise about how Warne always used to perform against the Indian team. He said that Warne had that personality of being flamboyant, but he was a real team man and always used to treat his people really well.

“There was this secret, an untold secret about the Australian team, that they will not go after a cricketer if you are friends with Shane Warne. So when you went out to bat, and if you were friends with Warne, you didn’t get any banter from the Aussies,” Anil Kumble had once said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

“So when I went to bat, Aussies didn’t need to do any banter to unsettle me. That was Warnie, that was how he looked after his friends.”

Kumble is not the first cricketer who has praised Warne for his friendly nature. Even former England batter Kevin Pietersen once expressed his admiration for Warne saying that the media had a role to play to tarnish the image of the Australian cricketer.