Steve Waugh: Dropping Shane Warne in 1999 Test was a part of my job as captain

New Delhi: Days after legendary leggie Shane Warne labelled him as 'the most selfish cricketer', former Australian skipper Steve Waugh opened up about the controversy.

Waugh, who first reacted to Warne's comments saying "I'm not justifying his comments with an answer," on Friday explained in detail the reason behind dropping the maverick spinner for the final Test on a tour of the West Indies 17 years ago.

"To be fair, not only Shane, any player I had to tell was dropped wasn't easy," he told Triple M commercial radio.

"It wasn't easy telling Adam Dale he was dropped for a Test match or Greg Blewett. There were a number of players I had to tell they weren't playing, Andy Bichel.

"As a captain that is the hardest thing to do. But it's also why you're captain, because people expect you to make the tough decisions for the benefit of the team.

"You have got to do that at times and you have got to be prepared not to be liked by everyone."

17 years after the being dropped for the final Test of the series against the Windies - which the Aussies went on to win to retain the Frank Worrell Trophy – Warne showed he still was upset with his former skipper.

"There's a lot of reasons I don't like Steve Waugh ... (one of them) because he's the most selfish cricketer I've played with," Warne said on Network Ten reality show 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here'.

Here is a video which was shared on Twitter by #ImACelebrityAU (‏@ImACelebrityAU):

VIDEO: Shane Warne talks Steve Waugh. #ImACelebrityAUhttps://t.co/b6LlrKYTeY — #ImACelebrityAU (@ImACelebrityAU) February 9, 2016