“The first time I saw ‘The King’ Shane Warne”: Matthew Hayden reveals the story when he saw Shane Warne for the first time

Shane Warne and Matthew Hayden have played cricket for so long together and both of them are Australian icons.

Shane Warne is arguably one of the greatest players to ever play the game. He was the first bowler in the world to claim 700 test wickets. He ended his career with 708 test wickets, whereas he has 293 ODI wickets under his belt. Warne also bowled the “Ball of the Century” in the 1993 Ashes.

Apart from his on-field records, Warne has had a lot of controversies throughout his career. He failed the drug test ahead of the 2003 World Cup. Warne even passed on the critical information to a bookmaker about the game. He has also been in a rift with Muttiah Muralitharan, Arjuna Ranatunga and Steve Waugh.  Despite all the off-field controversies, Warne is hugely admired in the cricketing circuit.

When Matthew Hayden first saw Shane Warne

Matthew Hayden and Shane Warne have been part of Australia’s invincible team. Both of them played together for quite a long time together. In 2020, on The Grade Cricket Podcast, Hayden revealed his first glimpse of Shane Warne. Hayden saw Shane Warne for the first time in the Sheffield Shield game. Interestingly, Shane Warne was not playing that game. It was a green top track, and Warne was the 12th man.

“The first time I saw ‘The King’ Shane Warne was a game against Victoria,” said Hayden.

“And obviously it was green as, so Warnie didn’t play, he was 12th man. We won the toss and batted stupidly on a green top, as always we used to do that.”

“So I’m walking behind Trevor Barsby who’s just nervously puffing his cigarette, and I’m in his slipstream. And I say to him, ‘Mate, isn’t that that Shane Warne? He’s supposed to be the next big thing’. And he went, ‘Yeah that’s Warnie’.”

#OnThisDay in 2002, Australia completed a dominant innings-and-198-run Test win over Pakistan in two days.

Shane Warne took 4/11 and 4/13 to help bowl Pakistan out for 59 and 53 – their lowest Test total at the time ☝️

Matthew Hayden made a gritty 119 in Australia’s innings 👏 pic.twitter.com/2Rqe3uqISx

— ICC (@ICC) October 12, 2020

Matthew Hayden said that Warne was obviously happy not playing that game because of the track. Hayden said Warne had a pie and a cigarette in the same hand, and he had a coke in the other hand.

“[I said] ‘Well mate they’ve got it right, he’s big.’ He was chomping away, he had a pie and a cigarette in the same hand, and he had a coke in the other hand, and he’s just trading blows. He was that happy because he wasn’t playing because he was so hungover. That’s what cricket was like. That was the culture, you play hard, and you’re also a player.”