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Warne rates spinning better than sex

Spin legend Shane Warne, who admits he has chased so many women his marriage finally buckled, says he would turn down a beautiful woman to be able to bowl England out in the second Test at Edgbaston.

"I'll take the cricket every time," the 35-year-old says.

"I'd give up sex to bowl a few more of those balls this summer. That's for sure."

Warne is referring to the leg-break that bamboozled Mike Gatting in the 1993 Old Trafford Ashes Test.

Warne's life has never been the same since and his 589 Test wickets make him unquestionably the greatest spin bowler of all time.

Worse still, he says he has done it all on a diet of pizzas and milkshakes.

"My diet is still pizzas, chips, toasted cheese sandwiches and milkshakes, I have the occasional six week burst where I stick to fruit and cereal."

"It bloody kills me but I guess you have to do it."

Warne admits he has made many mistakes but never looks back.

"I've made some poor choices when I've had too many but I've made some when I've been sober, the problem is there's still a big kid inside me who likes to have fun. Maybe I need to grow up ... and maybe I don't."

"I may have done a few things differently. But when you are thrust into the limelight at 22, like I was, it can be hard to deal with it in a mature, sensible way, you can't describe what that ball to Gatting did. It changed my life forever, on and off the pitch. I started being judged on every move I made."

But he knocks the women he has dated who have spilled the beans to the newspapers.

"It's poor form for cricketers or celebrities or movie stars that there are so many women out there selling their stories for cash.

"It's just another form of prostitution. What happens between two people, whoever they are, should stay between them." And he recognises a soul mate in England soccer captain David Beckham who has been caught by the tabloids more than once.

"We've been through a few similar things that I'd love to chat to him about over a beer or two," he says.

But the Australian is in no doubt about his place in cricket's hall of fame.

"No matter how many more wickets I take, I was voted one of the five best cricketers ever in the Wisden poll by my peers. And they can never take that away from me."