May 20, 2008, 14:18 GMT
Sydney - Australian cricket authorities Tuesday were coy on speculation that spin bowler Shane Warne could come out of retirement and play Test cricket again in next year's Ashes series against England.
The speculation started when the spin king was quoted in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper as saying he would consider a comeback if fellow spinner Stuart MacGill was sidelined by injury and captain Ricky Ponting appealed to him to come to the aid of his country.
Warne retired from Test cricket after the 5-0 Ashes whitewash of England in 2007. He is currently captain/coach of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.
'If Australia really needed me and there was no one else around, and Ricky thought I could do the job, you would weigh up the options,' Warne said.
'If Stuey MacGill fell over and broke his leg, and there were no other spinners around, and Ricky came out and said, 'Mate, can you please help us out for this one-off tour? We need you,' that is something I would weigh up.'
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said 'the reality is that Shane is retired and he's not available for selection.' But he did not specifically discount the possibility that Warne could be called up again.
Ponting said he had confidence in MacGill and said he was unaware of any plans for Warne to return to Test cricket.
'If he (MacGill) keeps himself fit and has the desire and passion to keep playing cricket then I'm pretty sure he would be good enough to get the Ashes job done,' Ponting told The Australian newspaper.
Warne, 38, has 720 Test wickets, second only to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.
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