Warne coy on Test future after heroic Ashes effort

LONDON, Tuesday (AFP) Shane Warne insisted he'd had no thoughts about quitting international cricket after bowing out of Test match action in England as a member of the losing side for the first time. England won the Ashes series 2-1 after the fifth and final Test at The Oval was drawn on Monday.

Although Warne, 36, dropped man-of-the-match Kevin Pietersen when he was on 15 and then saw his Hampshire team-mate score 158, no Australian had done more than the legendary leg-spinner to retain the Ashes.

In the series as a whole he took 40 wickets and scored 249 runs while in the fifth Test he all but kept Australia in the game with a match return of 12 for 246 including a marathon 31 overs unchanged on Monday.

There had been speculation that Warne, now captaining Hampshire, might bow out from Test cricket at the end of what had been widely regarded as one of the best series of all time.

But the only man to take 600 Test wickets, told reporters after stumps he'd made no plans about his Test future having earlier this year separated from his wife Simone, the mother of his three young children.

"Last time I said an honest thought about that, I was accused of causing a distraction to the team so I'd rather not go into that. With international cricket you've got to take the whole package.

"It's the living out of the suitcase, it's the living in the hotels, the touring, the time away from your family, your children and those types of things," Warne explained.

"You can't just say I want to keep playing. You've got to weigh up the whole package and weigh up the most important thing to you.

"At the moment in my life my kids are the most important thing to me. I haven't seen them for a lengthy period of time in the last 10 months and I really am missing them.

"I've got a couple of weeks left here for Hampshire and I'll get home and see then which will be great. I've played for a long time and not rush any of those decisions and keep playing. Hopefully in 18 months time, if I'm still around, I'd love the opportunity to help try to regain the Ashes in Australia.

"If I'm not, I'm not, cricket will move on and hopefully something the other (international) teams can take out of this series is the spirit it's been played in, the cameraderie it's been played in. Hopefully that's put cricket up there with all the best sports in the world.

The one thing I'll remember from this series is the way it's been played and the spirit it's been played in.

"It's been a fantastic series. It's hard to say that when you lose because I absolutely hate losing. I've tried as hard as I can through the whole series and I'm pretty proud of the way I've done." Warne added he'd no complaints about the result of the series.

"We just weren't good enough. England deserved to win and they outplayed us for the last four Test matches. We didn't really deserve to win and we hung on at Old Trafford where we didn't deserve a draw.

"For me personally 249 runs and 40 wickets is my best ever but unfortunately it wasn't good enough at the end of the day."

Warne has taken his fair share of abuse from English crowds, albeit in a pantomime villain kind of way, but he said he'd no problems generally with spectators during the series.

"The crowds should always get behind their side and give the opposition stick and rightly so. The one thing is that deep down they enjoy their cricket, English people enjoy their sport. They are entitled to gloat for a while. They deserve their time in the sun for the way they've played.

"For me it was a nice touch for them to say 'we wish you were English'. I'm never going to play another Test here, I like to think I've entertained them and given a lot of enjoyment over the years because they've given me a lot of enjoyment too.".