Rediff
Jaipur, May 2: Rajasthan Royals' skipper Shane Warne said he will lodge a complaint against his Kolkata Knight Riders' counterpart Sourav Ganguly for resorting to time-wasting tactics during their IPL match and refusing to accept the fielder's word on a "clean catch".
"I was disappointed at the start. While batting we waited for five minutes under the hot sun and they (Knight Riders) were not anywhere to be seen," fumed Warne at the post-match press conference after Royals beat Knight Riders by 45 runs on Thursday evening.
Asked if he will lodge a formal complaint, Warne replied: "It is on the way."
"When we came out to field, we had to wait for Sourav. So I was really disappointed; he was really running the time," Warne said.
The veteran leg-spinner said Ganguly's antics stretched the match beyond the stipulated time.
"He was going on his own time. Twenty20 is meant to be one hour 20 minutes for each side, but we were waiting for him.
"We just waited for Sourav to come out. When we were out on the field, we all stood there waiting. I don't know what he was doing. He wanted extra time," a visibly annoyed Warne
said.
Ganguly then angered the Royals' skipper further by asking for a third umpire referral on his catch that South African captain Graeme Smith [Images] took.
Warne and Smith may have never seen eye-to-eye when playing for their respective national teams but today Warne lashed out at Ganguly for what he perceived as the Indian casting aspersions on Smith's integrity.
"When in Bangalore we signed the Spirit of Cricket; it meant play in the right spirit. International captains like Graeme Smith says he caught him and it was a clean catch," asserted Warne.
" (Umpire) Rudy Koertzen at square leg said it was a clean catch ... players are not allowed to ask the umpire but Sourav asked the umpire to go to the third umpire. This is not allowed and it was a clean catch," he added.
Interestingly, Ganguly did resort to such time-wasting tactics when he was the captain of the Indian team and at the receiving of it was the then Australian skipper Steve Waugh.
Waugh went on to record his annoyance with Ganguly in his autobiography and had famously described the Kolkata left-hander as one of the most difficult captains to deal with.