Warne fires back at Hughes

Shane Warne is not concerned by the outburst of Kim Hughes this week as the former Australia captain is "not someone I respect". Hughes told an English newspaper Warne would have been an "embarrassment" as the national team's leader and he showed a "complete disregard" for the coach John Buchanan.

Warne was disappointed with the comments but "didn't take them to heart". "If it was someone I respected and really liked, I would be pretty annoyed and would take it up with them," he said in The Courier-Mail. "If it was a Richie Benaud or an Ian Chappell, who has been the biggest influence on my career, I would be on the phone and disappointed and upset by it."

Warne maintained that his comments about Buchanan during the launch of a book had been misconstrued. "It was never a personal attack on John Buchanan," he told the paper. "All I said was some of his methods and some of the ways he goes about things I thought lacked a bit of commonsense - not him as a person.

"It was never with malice or an intent of having a go at the coach. I don't know what the fuss and kerfuffle was about - as [the Cricket Australia chief executive] James Sutherland said the other day." Warne is due to open his season when Victoria play Western Australia in the Pura Cup match at the WACA on Sunday.