SYDNEY: Dismayed Australian cricket fans have launched a campaign to bring back spin bowling master Shane Warne, four years after his retirement, after the team's thrashing by England in the second Ashes Test. Australia lost the second Test of the five-match Ashes series in Adelaide by an innings and 71 runs Tuesday, prompting fears that the national team is hitting lows not seen since the 1980s. Warne has refused to comment on a possible comeback but Brisbane cricket fan Ross Heywood has established a website devoted to raising funds to entice the 41-year-old to make himself available for the rest of the Ashes series. “To bring back the Ashes, we need Warne,” states bringbackwarne.com which has raised over 3,000 dollars (2,932 US) for its Ashes “Rescue Fund” since Tuesday. “We offer the Rescue Fund to the King of Spin, pleading with him to once again don the Baggy Green and attempt to win us back the Ashes,” it says. “Should Warne not accept our offer, all contributions will be refunded.” Warne, who is hosting a cricket television show during the Ashes, dodged questions on a comeback while blogging for Sydney's Daily Telegraph Tuesday. The first Ashes Test in Brisbane ended in a draw, but the team has struggled for form and has dropped to a ranking of five in the world since the retirement of Warne, paceman Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist. Local sports writers also have resorted to trying to cajole Warne out of retirement in the hour of need. Warne, as famous for generating tabloid headlines as match-winning performances, would revitalize Australia's blunt attack which took only six wickets in its past two innings, columnist Peter Fitzsimons, a former Australia rugby international, wrote in Wednesday's Sydney Morning Herald. “Yes, England are on course for their first stunning victory since 1986-87 and it will be at our expense. Unless we do something. Who ya gonna call? Not Ghostbusters. Why not Shane Warne?” The stocky blond extrovert from Melbourne's suburbs relished terrorising English batsmen over the course of a long, illustrious career, but retired from international cricket after Australia white-washed England 5-0 in the last home series. More than 70 percent of respondents to an online survey carried by local tabloid, the Daily Telegraph, said Warne should be recalled, but the spinner has played a straight bat – without expressly ruling himself out. “There has been a bit written in Australia and people have been asking me about making a comeback. All I can say is that it is very flattering to hear those words,” Warne wrote in the Telegraph, a British newspaper. The legspinner instead plumped for Michael Beer, an untried state cricketer, for his left-arm spin and local knowledge of Perth's WACA ground, where Australia will hope to peg back the 1-0 series deficit in the third test next week. “Sometimes horses for courses works. Australia have to explore all options and win this next match to get back in this series,” Warne said. Warne could be coaxed back out of retirement, but would need to be handed the captaincy, Fitzsimons said. “I say, OK. Ricky Ponting, we love you and thanks, but it just isn't working ... In desperate straits, we need to not only roll the dice, but go to the man who has rolled the dice for a living, even in his downtime.” Ponting's challenge Suddenly the prospect of being the first Australian captain in 120 years to lose three Ashes series is very real for Ricky Ponting. It was in Adelaide the last time the Ashes were contested on Australian soil that the home side pulled off a remarkable victory which proved the catalyst for its 5-0 series whitewash. Four years on, it was an entirely different outcome. Although the series is open with three matches to go, Australia has not come from behind to win a home series since 1936-37 when Sir Donald Bradman led Australia from 2-0 down to win 3-2. Although the Australians did overcome a 1-0 deficit to win the 1997 series in England. With only Ponting, Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke remaining from the victorious 2006-07 Ashes side, and mainstay Simon Katich in all likelihood out for the series, Australia is relying on a new generation of players to win back the Ashes.
