LONDON, Oct 18: Leg-spin wizard Shane Warne in his new book to be launched in London on Tuesday titled Shane Warne’s Century says “the hardest thing for me was getting ex-Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga in — I tried every which way to leave him out.

“He [Ranatunga] doesn’t play the game in the right spirit. He told umpire where he could stand, ordered his players off the field, got a runner on at least three or four occasions where there was nothing wrong with him,” Warne wrote.

Warne added that he’d be rubbing one leg, but by the time physio came back out, it had switched to the other.

“He milked system, but he was a bloody good player — and it annoyed me to put him in! And he gave Sri Lanka a winning culture, which they’ve built on,” Warne said.

Have you had any spiky phone calls from players not happy with their ranking? Or not in the top 100 at all? “I changed my phone number! I haven’t had too many yet, but the Aussies are playing over in India so I might send one to my mate Michael Clarke and see if there is any banter.”—Agencies