At a time when Shane Warne's contentious relationship with Steve Waugh hit a new low, Shane Lee has revealed that the ex-Australian skipper told him during the 1996 World Cup that the former leg-spinner was like “the kid at school with no mates” in the dressing room. 

See Also: "Don’t agree with his thoughts" - Gillespie on Warne's "most selfish" remark for Waugh 

“I remember the ’96 World Cup. I was selected as a 23-year-old all-rounder. And Warney was really nice and took me in. He said, ‘It’s going to be the Shane show, you and me, the Shane show’,” Lee, the older brother of speedster Brett Lee, said on the Betoota Advocate podcast.

“Steve Waugh pulled me aside and said, ‘How you going with Warney?’ I said he’s being really nice to me and Waugh said, ‘Do you remember when you were at school and there was a kid at school that had no mates and this new kid comes to school and that kid with no mates is all over that new kid? You’re that new kid and Warney’s the kid with no mates.’”

Lee’s remarks came just a month after Warne termed Waugh as the “most selfish cricketer” he ever played with.

Waugh fired back a few days later, saying the former leg-spinner’s “comments are a reflection of himself”.

Regardless of Waugh’s comments, Lee hailed Warne as the best cricketer he ever saw and played with.

“But Warney, he was the best cricketer I ever saw and played with. A freak of a cricketer and a great cricket brain,” said Lee, who played 45 ODIs for Australia between 1995 and 2001.

He also shared his two cents on the relation between Warne and Stuart MacGill, who was considered Australia’s second-choice spinner in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“They were chalk and cheese. But I think there was a mutual respect between them, I think it really helped MacGill having Warney in front of him. Because people would always say to him, ‘Ah mate you could’ve been anything.’ But when MacGill was given the reigns at the end he imploded with it,” Lee said.