SHANE WARNE has insisted he will never play one-day international cricket for Australia again.

The Hampshire captain quit the limited-overs game afte the 2003 World Cup - a tournament he missed due to failing a drugs test prior to the event.

And after passing on his No 23 shirt to Michael Clarke at the weekend, Warne re-iterated his future plans don't involve any more one-day internationals.

"Of course I'd love to keep playing one-day cricket," he confessed.

"I'm smart enough to realise if I continue to play both forms of the game, then I don't think I can play for another three years of Test cricket, as I'd like to do."

Warne, 35, is eighth on the all-time list of wicket takers in one-day internationals with 291 at 25.8 apiece.

In giving away his squad numbered shirt to Clarke - who he played alongside for Hampshire last summer - Warne said he also hoped to start a tradition of passing on squad numbers.

"It's a tradition that hasn't really happened in cricket and I wanted to be the first guy," Warne said. "The reasons for giving the shirt to Michael were pretty simple. I love the way he plays the game. He entertains."

Clarke recently became only the third Australian in history to score a century on his Test debut both home and away.

Clarke, though, was unable to help his country beat New Zealand in the first ODI in Melbourne yesterday.

Batting at number seven, he hit 36 in Australia's 246-9 off 50 overs - a score bettered only by opener Adam Gilchrist (68) and Darren Lehmann (50).

Shane Watson, who spent a short but successful period with Hampshire last summer, went into the game in form after blasting 136 for Queensland against Western Australia recently but he scored just three.

Watson bowled the last over when the Kiwis replied - and the visitors clinched a four-wicket win with two balls left. Watson, who has hardly bowled for his country in the one-day game since before the last World Cup due to back problems, ended with 0-42 from 8.4 overs.

Nathan Astle top scored for New Zealand with 70.

Simon Katich, who is poised to return to Hampshire for a third successive summer in 2005, has been included in Australia's squad for the three-match series but he was left out.