In Sydney to promote a Hot Wheels toy car he has designed, Warne, 42, was generally upbeat about the state of the game in Australia.
The legendary spinner, who took 1001 Test and one-day wickets in an international career spanning 15 years, praised the early work of new Test captain and good friend Michael Clarke.
He described as “sensationalism” recent match-fixing allegations against Australia that were subsequently dismissed and said the game was clean, having gone through the “dark ages” 15 to 20 years ago.
Warne commended Cricket Australia for the direction they were taking the game in, though he felt it had taken too long to get the off-field situation sorted out.
With a new head coach and selection panel to be chosen, Warne singled out former middle order batsman Lehmann, who has accumulated coaching experience at Twenty20 level with Queensland and Indian Premier League franchise Deccan Chargers.
He said Lehmann had a good cricket brain and communicated well.
“He understands the game really well, he can help the captain out a bit, he’s got flair, he’s got imagination, but he’s also got that nice balance between new and old school,” Warne said.
“I see him in some sort of role with the team, if that’s chairman of selectors and co-ordinating the team and picking the younger players, or if it’s head coach or assistant coach.”
Warne, who captained Clarke at English county Hampshire several tears ago, always thought his friend had leadership potential and revealed they remained in contact.
“He’s one of my closest friends and I’m probably his harshest critic. I don’t sugarcoat too many things,” Warne said.
“I’m not mentoring him, but I’m helping him as a friend and he rings from time to time and we talk about all sorts of things.
“We talk about young kids, we talk about situations, captaincy, communication, getting the best out of players.”
While Australia have moved up to fourth in the Test rankings, Warne believes they have the talent and opportunities to ultimately overhaul England, who he rated a deserving No.1.
“They are playing South Africa now, they just beat Sri Lanka, then they’ve got India, so that England is not far away,” Warne said of the Australian team.
“Suddenly, they’ve got an opportunity in the next 18 months to two years, if they can beat all them, to be back to No.1.”
Warne said Australia possessed a wonderful range of young spinners, but there was no standout and the selectors needed to stick with one for a while rather than maintain their recent revolving-door policy.
Asked about Test spin incumbent Nathan Lyon, Warne said: “Lyon looks good – there’s a lot of good young spinners. Hopefully, they stick with one but, hopefully, one grabs his opportunity too.”
