Warne takes to Twitter to clarify comments

Shane Warne has posted a series of tweets on Monday in a bid to clarify his comments that Darren Lehmann has to "be careful" in relation to overstepping his bounds as coach of the Australian cricket team.

Warne took to social media in an attempt to downplay the stir caused by his on-air comments that Lehmann was exerting too much influence on the Australian cricket team.

Warne wrote that "Boof and I are mates, he has done a very good job as coach.." before claiming "Boof would agree with me too, all I said is he has to be careful..."

Speaking on Sydney radio station 2GB's 'The Allrounders' program to fellow leggie Kerry O'Keeffe last weekend, Warne warned his former teammate and good friend Lehmann to be "careful" to remember that it is the captain not the coach who calls the on-field shots.

Warne went on to cite the example of last year's Boxing Day Test against India, when he was seen waving Australia's batsmen in after stand-in captain Steve Smith had controversially deferred his team's declaration on a rain-affected final day, as an example of Lehmann overstepping his role.

Smith later denied Lehmann had influenced the declaration decision.

"They showed him on the TV actually doing it, but I was up the top doing it – it was me," said Smith.

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Warne today said it was "irrelevant" who filled the roles of captain and coach and was part of a wider discourse on the set-up of the best Australian teams.

Mark Waugh, a former Australia teammate of Warne and Lehmann and current member of Cricket Australia's National Selection Panel, said the leg-spinner's criticism of the coach was "a bit unfair".

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but Warney has never liked coaches though," Waugh told radio station Triple M.

"When he was playing he said the cricket team doesn't need coaches.

"I think it's a bit unfair on Darren Lehmann, he's done a great job since he's been there.

"The side's played very well since he's been coach."

In Warne's radio outburst, he had pointed out that the team had been shaped under current captain Michael Clarke who had been in charge for more than two years before Lehmann was appointed coach in 2013.

"It was Michael Clarke who taught them how to win," said Warne, a long-time friend of Clarke's who he current Australia captain described last Friday as "a big supporter of mine".

"Darren Lehmann has come in and put a bit of icing on the cake, he's actually complemented Michael Clarke.

"He (Lehmann) has got to be a little bit careful that he's got to stop walking out on the MCG and declaring.

"He's got to remember that's the captain's job not the coach's job. Darren Lehmann understands the game of cricket.

"He's a good man manager, and he's got to remember what it was like when he played and what the coaches were like.

"The captain is in charge and it's something Australian cricket has to look at it with the way they want to do things – who is in charge."