Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne, great foes on field of play and good friends off it, had an intense 20-minute discussion on the sidelines of the net sessions of Ranji Champions Mumbai and the visiting Australian cricket team at the Brabourne Stadium today morning.

Warne, after finishing his stint at the nets, walked across to where Tendulkar was standing, behind the Mumbai nets, and the two got engaged in a long conversation which gave ideal photo-ops to the horde of eager press photographers and TV camera crew.

The two were later joined by stand-in Australian skipper Adam Gilchrist and newcomer in the team, Brad Hodge, before the practice sessions of the two teams came to an end.

Tendulkar had come to the ground to wish his teammates the best of luck ahead of their three-day clash with the Aussies commencing at the same venue tomorrow.

Tendulkar's Mumbai mates Vinod Kambli and Ajit Agarkar later described the visit of the master batsman, recovering from tennis elbow which has kept him out of action for six weeks, as a big morale booster for the multiple-time Ranji champions.

"His visit has given us a lot of encourament and a big uplift to our morale," flamboyant left-hander Kambli told reporters about his erstwhile school chum's visit.

Agarkar, who was groomed in the national squad by Tendulkar, echoed Kambli's views and said it was an especially big morale booster for the younger Mumbai players.

"It (Tendulkar's presence) makes a big difference to the youngsters as it had done to me when I was new in the Indian team," he said.