I shouldn't have been sacked as vice-captain: Warne

London, August 1: Australian leg spinner Shane Warne is still bitter over his sacking as vice-captain - two years after he lost the position after being involved in explicit phone conversations with a female fan.

Warne, who is married with two children, said the incident while playing county cricket for Hampshire in August last year had nothing to do with cricket.

"Some people used it to launch a character assassination which generated so much momentum that certain members of the Australian Cricket Board felt they had no other option and sacked me," Warne said in his autobiography, which is being serialized by The Daily Mail.

"I had made a mistake, but it was a private matter; having an explicit talk on the phone with a girl did not mean that, all of a sudden, I'd lost my flipper (bowling action) or forgotten how to set a field."

Warne said he felt his contribution to cricket - not his off-field behavior - should have counted.

"I've helped put a few backsides on seats and made spin bowling more interesting," he said. "I play in an aggressive, animated, emotional way which reflects the pride I take in representing my country. That should have counted for something."

Warne took over as test vice-captain when Steve Waugh was elevated to the captaincy following the retirement of Mark Taylor in 1999. He had led Australia in limited-overs internationals but never in a test match.

Warne said the prerequisite for captains and vice-captains should not be a squeaky clean image.

"We don't want a Richie Cunningham, that character from Happy Days, who was always polite and well-mannered and said all the right things but relied on the Fonz, a more confident, street-wise figure, to overcome his problems in the real world," he said.

"Sometimes a captain needs to put a few noses out of joint. We don't want robots in charge."

Warne said he had no animosity toward his replacement, wicket keeper Adam Gilchrist.

He said he admired the reaction of his wife Simone to the phone sex incident and said his marriage had eventually returned to normal. Warne also said he owed Hampshire a great deal for his county stint.

"I hope this does not sound like a bitter man having a cheap whinge," he said.