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The announcement of Mark Taylor's retirement was received with a great deal of disappointment by the cricket lovers across Australia and perhaps some parts of the world. He was, without doubt, one of the finest captains of modern-day cricket, respected by many, both on and off the field. Not only did he have an excellent success rate during his five-year reign, he also showed good leadership and great sportsmanship which consequently earned him the coveted ``Australian of the year'' award title in 1998.

Despite ACB's persuasion for Taylor to captain on the Australian tour of the Caribbean he opted to step-down. However, he will not be hanging up his cricket gear yet, as he plans to continue playing for N.S.W in the Sheffield Shield for the moment.

This brings us to a million-dollar question Who should take over from Mark Taylor??!! The natural choice would have been Steve Waugh (who is the official Captain of the Australian limited over side) who unfortunately has been inactive due to injuries. Hence, it has been rumoured that Shane Warne should take over the role of Captaincy!!

A captain of an international cricketing side should be calm, collected, unruffled at all times and should set an example to the rest of the members.

He should have exemplary discipline and abide by the laws of cricket. In the absence of the above qualities, it is believed that one should not be playing cricket, let alone lead an international team - or at least this is what the Australian media said about Arjuna Ranatunga, when after eleven years of cricket with an outstanding record behind him, he argued out a moot point of a controversial issue with umpire Emerson in the recent past!!!

Now we have, in Shane Warne, a confirmed ruffian converted into a ``Cricketer'', who swears compulsively, when things go wrong for him, and a confirmed sledging partner of Ian Healey's when playing together.

To top it all he was found guilty of accepting a large sum of money (along with Mark Waugh) in the form of a bribe, which the Australian Cricket Board and everyone concerned conveniently rephrased into ``money given to obtain weather and ground condition reports''!!

If one requires this kind of information, all it takes is a couple of hundred dollars to one of the ground-staff or better still, watch-out for hourly weather report. This looks to me like another bureaucratic cover up in order to safeguard the integrity of one of Australia's leading bowlers.

In addition to all this, Shane Warne also has accepted Aus. $200,000 from Nicorette Pvt. Limited as an ``incentive'' for giving up smoking!!! Now, do I smell a different kind of ``pay off'' here a ``legal bribe'' perhaps!!?

When you consider Shane Warne's blotchy past and the infamous present, it is completely beyond me as to why the ACB is even toying with the idea of appointing him as the Australian cricket captain especially replacing Mark Taylor, ``The Australian of the Year.''

On the other hand if this comes to pass and is accepted by the Australian public it would only highlight another instance where the Australians have shown double standards (criticising Salim Malik, Wasim Akram and Arjuna Ranatunga but, yet condoning Shane Warne's position as a role-model for the cricket-loving younger generation). This would further tarnish the already blemished reputation of the Australian cricket team.

Channa de Silva is a former Observer staffer in Australia.