SYDNEY, Feb 25: Steve Waugh says Shane Warne’s 12-month suspension will be more like a 15-month ban because he would need at least three months of match practice to play international cricket again.

The Australian Test captain said people were forgetting Warne would not have played any competitive cricket during his suspension for taking a banned diuretic pill.

But Waugh told Sydney radio 2UE late on Tuesday that only Warne, 33, would know how long it would take to get back up to world standard after such a lay off.

“That is a long time out of the game,” Waugh said. “I think people are forgetting that he won’t have played any cricket for that time so it will probably take another couple of months to get back into it.”

Waugh noted the next major tour following the end of Warne’s suspension was India in September next year, effectively condemning the leg-spinner to an 18-month sentence.

“It’s realistically at least 15 months because he won’t have played competitive cricket ... “I’m sure he’ll want to get back out on the field but it won’t be as quick as people imagine.”

Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chief executive James Sutherland has said a decision on whether to allow Warne to train with the Victorian and Australian sides during his exile had not yet been made.

“We will cross that bridge about training when we come to it,” Sutherland said.

The ACB is yet to receive notification of Warne’s appeal.

Warne told the Nine Network late Tuesday he had a letter of appeal ready and written, but was still deciding whether to fight the ban.

“One side of me says ‘get out there, appeal and get less penalty because it’s not fair’,” Warne told a television interviwer.

“Another side of me says ‘I’m a human being, I want to get on with my life, cop the penalty and just get on with it’.

“I don’t want to rush into a decision ... whether I just spend the 12 months or go away for 12 months, I just don’t know at this stage.

“I don’t want to be rushed into anything until it’s clear what I want to do.”—AFP