Sport | Cricket

Foes turn friends at the call of IPL

Former Australia legspinner Shane Warne was taken aback when he heard he'll soon be playing alongside his cricketing nemesis South Africa captain Graeme Smith in the Indian Premier League.

  • AP
  • Published: 23:40 February 25, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Former Australia legspinner Shane Warne is captain of the Rajasthan Royals.
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Adelaide: Former Australia legspinner Shane Warne was taken aback when he heard he'll soon be playing alongside his cricketing nemesis South Africa captain Graeme Smith in the Indian Premier League.

"I won't tell you what my first impression was," a smiling Warne said yesterday of the player he's had a number of verbal jousts with during matches.

"When you play against people and you're both playing for your country you might not see eye to eye, and I haven't seen eye to eye with Graeme about a lot of things," he said.

"In a funny sort of way I'm actually looking forward to it, so it'll be interesting to see how he ticks and hopefully he can help me out with a few of the younger players in the side," Warne added.

"We're playing together in the same side where we haven't got along well over the years, but hopefully we might get along as teammates."

Warne and Smith will play for the IPL's Jaipur franchise.

Warne said he has no doubt the Twenty20 IPL tournament is the future of cricket.

"You've got to embrace it ..." Warne said. "It's big money for all of the players, let's work around it, but as long as the priority is to play for your country and state."

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