Australian captain Aaron Finch opens up on his relationship with Shane Warne

When Shane Warne picked up the phone to personally recruit a new player for his IPL team, his selection criteria was simple. It only suited two players and proved a defining moment for one.

When Shane Warne picked up the phone to personally recruit a new player for his IPL team, his selection criteria was simple.

He wanted a Victorian.

And if he smokes and drinks all the better.

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Bingo. There he was. The perfect choice. Your search is over Shane.

“He rang Shaun Graf and asked if a young Victorian player would be any good over there,” recalls Australian captain, Aaron Finch.

“Grafy said, ‘well you’ve got two options. You’ve got Matty Wade or you’ve got Aaron Finch and Finchy loves a durry and loves drinking a bit of piss.’

“And Warnie said, ‘right, we’ll take him.’”

That was 2010 when Warne was still captain of the Rajasthan Royals and it was how Finch got his start in the bright lights of international cricket.

Shane Warne had a remarkbly unique way of recruiting

It was a career-defining moment for a future star because it introduced Finch to a mentor who would become one of his greatest cricketing influences.

“I came in as a replacement player before I’d even played much for Victoria. To spend days and nights with him and just hanging out talking cricket, training, everything – it was just a different level and that was my first real introduction to international cricket. It was pretty special,” Finch told News Corp.

“Just to see how the King rolled in a different way to anyone else I’d ever experienced.”

Finch and Warne became close mates, but the IPL dugout in 2010 wasn’t where the skipper’s first impressions of the spin king were formed.

When Finch was just a young boy, his younger cousin was suffering leukaemia and his wish to the Make a Wish Foundation was to meet Shane Warne.

What happened next became a sacred moment for Finch and his family.

“The Make a Wish Foundation said, ‘look, do you want to go to Disneyland? Because that would be more achievable. And he (my cousin) said, ‘nah, I want to meet Shane Warne,’” recalls Finch.

“I think it was around 1994 or 1995 and a few days out from the Boxing Day Test, just before Christmas obviously, and Warnie took the time out of his unbelievably busy schedule to spend time with my cousin who unfortunately passed away after that.

“He was a rock star at the time, and to go out of his way for somebody he didn’t know to make the family feel special for four or five hours bowling balls in the lounge room with him was unbelievably memorable.

“They’re the things that people don’t see. It’s not publicised. It’s genuinely out of the goodness of people’s hearts.

Shane Warne and Aaron Finch

“That’s something really special to our family and something I’ll never forget.”

Like all Victorian kids, Finch grew up with a Warne poster on his wall, bowling leg-spin in the front yard, and even tried to emulate his wide run-up to the crease – until realising that as a left-armer the mechanics didn’t quite match up.

Then one day they became teammates.

“The one thing I took out of getting to know him straight away was no matter what role you’re playing in the game, you always have to be thinking like a captain,” said Finch.

By 2014, Finch – with very little leadership experience at Big Bash level – was thrust into the Australian T20 captaincy and Warne was the first man he turned to.

Before last year’s World Cup triumph – a history-making moment for Finch as captain – he sat around a poker table with Warne talking tactics.

“Over a couple of beers and just chatting informally. It’s great because you’re able to throw out a heap of ideas and he’d throw out ideas and you’d sort of flush out what you were seeing or what you were feeling,” Finch said.

“And you could disagree with each other’s opinion but you could also talk around why you thought it could be done differently and you’d end up in a space where you’re having a really constructive chat about what you think you need to try and do to win.”

Finch did Warne and Australia proud at the World Cup and last night raised a glass for the king of spin from his hotel room in Lahore.

Originally published as Australian captain Aaron Finch opens up on his relationship with Shane Warne