Was Offered USD 200,000 by Salim Malik to Bowl Badly: Shane Warne

File picture of Shane Warne.

(File Photo: AP)

Spin great Shane Warne in interview to NDTV about his newly released autobiography 'No Spin', made a startling reveleation about how during Australia’s 1994-95 Tour of Pakistan, former Pakistan batsman Saleem Malik had allegedly offered him money in the Karachi Test.

“Saleem Malik offered me 200,000 US dollars, he said it will be in my room in half-an-hour if I bowl wide of the off-stump and the match was a draw. That’s the bottom line of what he asked.”

Shane Warne to NDTV

Warne also mentioned about the time when he was offered money by a bookie in Sri Lanka.

“I lost 5,000 thousand dollars in a casino and a friend of Mark Waugh said, ‘look, here is the 5,000’ and I said ‘no, I’m okay’. But he said, ‘no strings attached and no nothing’ and that was that.”

Shane Warne

Eight years after clarifying that his "nightmares" about Sachin Tendulkar’s comment was a joke, Warne had no qualms in picking the iconic Indian as the one to "bat" for his life.

Known to speak his mind, 49-year-old Warne, while refusing to get into a debate on who between Tendulkar and Brian Lara was the best batsman of his generation, said that he would want Tendulkar to bat for his life.

“Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, easily, were the best batsmen of our generation, my time. If I want someone to score a hundred on the final day of the Test series, I would send Lara. But if I want someone to bat for my life day in, day out, I would send Tendulkar, he was a class act.”

Shane Warne

Tendulkar had dominated the Australian legend and had won a tri-nation tournament in Sharjah single-handedly in 1998, picking Warne for special treatment. The punishment meted out then made Warne say that just the very thought of Tendulkar gave him nightmares. However, in 2010, the Australian said the remark was made in a lighter vein.

Warne also said how his poor record in Tests in India as compared to other countries does not affect him.

“It’s not a regret. I had a shoulder and a finger operation in two of the tours in India which was really disappointing. The Indian side back then had Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and Sehwag. It was very hard over there in India. I gave my best but they were too good.”

Shane Warne

The leg-spinner also spoke about his children and relationships in his book. Warne got divorced from wife Simone Callahan in 2005 after which he got engaged to Elizabeth Hurley, which also didn’t last long.

“It’s never easy for the children when their parents break up. But they have been fantastic to both their mother and me. Now, we have got a fantastic relationship and at the end of the day, the ups and downs in our life make us who we are. I’m very lucky to have a terrific relationship with my children.”

Shane Warne

Commenting on the book, Warne said: "The book is an intense, personal account of my life. I've been brutally honest in the book. About my personal life, my relationship with my children, cricket family.”

(With inputs from PTI)