MELBOURNE: Adam Gilchrist played an important role in Shane Warne's career, but it is no secret that the duo have shared a frosty relationship.
Gilchrist, in his yet to be published autobiography "True Colours: My Life", reveals how seeds of bitterness were sown in their relationship.
Warne and Gilchrist were one of most successful bowler-keeper partnerships in history but never really got along.
Gilchrist said he was hurt by being labelled an "a licker" by Warne in a Sheffield Shield match in the late 1990s. Warne mercilessly sledged the wicketkeeper in an incident that Gilchrist has never forgotten.
Warne, playing for Victoria, was backing his great mate Darren Berry to be Ian Healy's successor as Test wicketkeeper, over Gilchrist, who was playing for Western Australia, The Daily Telegraph reports.
"Warnie and Darren Berry were absolutely giving it to me, verbally," Gilchrist writes in his autobiography to be released next week.
"They were saying 'you've only got where you are because you're a licker'. The nature of what they were saying was extremely hurtful.
"I felt it had a lot to do with me being above Chuck (Berry) in the pecking order behind Healy. Chuck might have envied me because of that and Warnie was Chuck's best friend.
"But considering I'd played some cricket with Warnie now for Australia, it was below the belt.
"At the time it almost killed me."
But Gilchrist writes he ultimately agreed with a line in a Warne newspaper column: "There are a lot of things we disagree on but we're not enemies."
Gilchrist writes: "I am always happy to see Warnie if I walk into a function, and I get the feeling he is happy to see me."
"He has really pissed me off over the years with certain acts, and I've pissed him off too. But we played eight years of international cricket together. I think it underwrites everything else."
