Michael Clarke said he plans to reach out to Mitchell Starc after the Australian fast bowler revealed his sadness over never mending fences with Shane Warne.
Speaking on Sky Sports Radio, Clarke insisted that the late great liked Starc, and had nothing against him despite his regular criticism of the left-armer.
“I can tell you now. Warnie liked Starccy,” Clarke said. “I’m going to reach out to Starccy because I don’t think Starccy realises that Warnie actually loved him. Really liked him, thought he had so many good things about his game.”
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Clarke was speaking in response to a press conference on Thursday, in which Starc reflected on Warne’s criticism of his bowling.
Warne was Starc’s harshest critic and regularly questioned his spot in the Test side, although he gave credit where it was due after an impressive performance at last summer’s Ashes.
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The spin legend said he was open to clearing the air with Starc over a beer — but the meeting never happened after Warne’s shock death in Thailand in March.
“The disappointing part, or the sad part, is that we never got to have that conversation,” Starc said.
“I guess we’ll never know (whether it was personal).
“I don’t know – I never got a phone call to take up that offer (of a beer). Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”
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Now Clarke is eager to set the record straight with Starc.
The former Australia captain said that Warne never had anything against the fast bowler and only wanted to help get the best out of him.
“Warnie just marked him hard,” Clarke said. “That’s all.
“And I tell you, Warnie actually believed at times that him being so hard on him got the best out of him. He thought he was saying it as well to help Starccy.
“I know he was hard on him. He did that with certain players, he’d pick them and wouldn’t let up and Starccy was probably one of those.
“But I spoke to him about it at the time and he did not have any personal issue with Starccy at all. (He) met him a few times and thought he was absolutely fine.”
Clarke added: “You can understand why Starccy had taken that personally as well, so I’m going to reach out to him today … honestly, he really liked him.”
Before his death, Warne told News Corp in an unpublished interview that he didn’t have any issue with Starc “whatsoever”.
Warne said he would have been happy to chat with Starc, adding: “It’s nothing personal. I’m there to judge what I see … It devalues the public out there (if you don’t give) your opinion. It looks like you’re having favourites.
“Unfortunately, I’ve got an opinion and I think it’s important that us commentators, or people in the game, yourself (journalists) included, you’ve got to be honest with your opinions and some people aren’t going to like it, which is fine.
“But maybe they might respect it, or maybe it might even inspire them. Who knows?”