Bemused Waugh brushes off another Warne spray

In the vast vacant chamber of a sporting world without sport, everything echoes. Last weekend, it was Shane Warne versus Steve Waugh.

This bemused Waugh. "People keep saying it's a feud," he said. "But to me, a feud's between two people. I've never bought into it, so it's just one person."

As it happens, Warne also says it's about just one person. "Steve was easily the most selfish cricketer I ever played with," tweeted Warne. It could have been a cut-and-paste of a cut-and-paste of a cut-and-paste.

Frosty: Steve Waugh, right, and Shane Warne, left, at a press conference in 1999. Credit: DIG

Follow the bouncing ball here. In the sport-less abyss, Fox Sport has been screening a six-part docu-series on Warne. Coincidentally, the cricket website Cricinfo posted a stat to show that Waugh was involved in more run-outs than any other international cricketer. Of the total of 104, Waugh was out 31 times, his partner 73.

Cricket fan and archivist Rob Moody compiled them all into one hour-long clip and posted it on his robelinda2 channel, which has been doing robust traffic in the coronavirus hiatus. "OMG, he was just awful at calling," Moody remarked. "Just, awful."

"Mmmmmmmmmmm," tweeted Warne.

Waugh and Warne go back a ways. Waugh once tried to recruit the uncapped Warne to NSW when Victoria was showing only tepid interest. They played much redoubtable international cricket together, some as captain and vice-captain.

In Waugh's first series as Test captain in 1999, Australia fell 1-2 behind the West Indies in the Caribbean. Warne, returning from a shoulder injury, had taken two wickets in three Tests, so Waugh dropped him for the last.

By Warne's own accounts - there are many - he reacted badly, was a poor team man in the moment, even took up smoking again. As a matter of record, Australia won the Test to tie the series and retain the Frank Worrall Trophy they had gone to such pains to win back four years previously.

His comments are a reflection of himself, nothing to do with me. That's all I'd say.

Steve Waugh on Shane Warne

Soon afterwards in England, Australia won the World Cup, with Waugh and Warne playing crucial roles, further burnishing the legend of each. You'd think that's vindication enough.

But Warne still has not forgiven Waugh for that missing Test on his CV. "I don't like Steve Waugh for a lot of reasons, but that was the reason," he said in 2018.

Waugh is now 54, Warne 50. Talk about fighting the last Waugh. Every other year or so, he lets forth again. In 2016, it was while appearing on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. In 2018, it was in his autobiography, No Spin.

Always, the charge is the same: selfishness. Warne says it is not personal. "For the record AGAIN & I've said this 1000 times - I do not hate S Waugh at all," he tweeted this week. Then: "Steve was easily the most selfish cricketer that I ever played with, and this stat … [he runs out of characters]". It takes the flipperish dexterity of Warne to say that calling someone selfish is not personal. It's yes/no/wait/sorry.

Waugh has defended his 1999 captaincy several times. "I had to make a decision, as a captain and a leader" he told the ABC in 2018. "I didn't want to make that decision but I did it for the benefit of the team."

But he has let the rest slide, though on Monday the merest exasperation with Warne showed. "His comments are a reflection of himself, nothing to do with me," he said. "That's all I'd say."

Was Waugh selfish? Most greats are, subtly or blatantly. Self-belief and selfishness are, well, twins. Absorbed as the idle sports world is by The Last Dance, it's not for the way Michael Jordan overflows with the milk of human kindness at every turn.

Waugh's philosophy when batting with tailenders was unusual in its time. He let them take the strike as it came, figuring that only when sinking would they learn to swim. The record shows it mostly worked.

The run-out log is crude. Many are from the fag-end of one-dayers, when the hitting and the running necessarily are high-risk, at both ends. I don't have the dedication to watch and assess them all. Besides, it would mean commentating on the old Warne-Waugh, the weary old war.

But, as an example, the second in the chronological catalogue is Greg Ritchie, not exactly Usain Bolt, sent back by Waugh after calling a suicide single. Does that mean he was culpably run out by Waugh? In the clip, all are rolled into one, implicating Waugh in them all.

Warne would say, and often does, he calls it as he sees it. Waugh would say that's all he was doing all those years ago, too.