NOT many Australian selectors would dare to drop Shane Warne, but it appears the nation’s TV executives take a different view.

The final episode of the legendary leg-spinner’s chat show, Warnie, has been removed from the schedule amid the general cricketing malaise sweeping the nation.

With England already having retained the Ashes and on the brink of a series win, it seems there is little appetite in the country for a cricket-themed entertainment show.

Ratings begin above 850,000 but had dropped to 500,000 even by the second show of the series, despite high-profile guests including Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Sting, Dannii Minogue and our own Michael Parkinson.

A spokeswoman for Channel Nine said that with the series all but over, there was no need for Warne’s final show.

Belatedly, it seems England have finally found a way to subdue their nemesis.

EVEN in retirement, Warne is an inescapable presence at an Ashes Test, but Wednesday in Sydney was all about his former bowling cohort Glenn McGrath and his late wife.

For the third year running, the SCG crowd celebrated Jane McGrath Day – in memory of Glenn’s wife, who died of breast cancer – by turning the stadium pink.

Fans got into the spirit with pink shirts, hats and sun cream, while on the field the Australia players wore pink laces in their boots and England took the field before play in signed pink caps, later to be auctioned for charity.

Up in the commentary box, Michael Holding attracted attention with a pink bandana, while the Sky and Channel Nine teams decided a member from each would wear a pink suit.

Michael Slater was nominated from the Australian side, while Sir Ian Botham decreed the English participant should be decided by an unscientific email vote. With the poll too close to call between Nasser Hussain and David Lloyd, the matter was decided by a coin toss.

Predictably, Nasser lost. Old habits die hard.

ALEEM Dar was involved in a moment of controversy when, after consultation with the TV umpire, he overturned his own decision to give Ian Bell out caught behind off Shane Watson.

The evidence of “Snicko”

subsequently suggested that he’d been right the first time and Bell should have gone – so perhaps he was feeling a shade guilty when, a few overs later, the same bowler clipped the stumps in his delivery and sent the ball ballooning up into the air.

Dar collected the ball, ran to the stumps and motioned as if to run out Matt Prior, the non-striker.

Even with the umpires pitching in, though, Australia were struggling to take ten English wickets.