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| Shane Warne's 700th wicket in his last bowling performance at the MCG during the Ashes where he took 5 for 39 | |
The greatest leg spinner of all time and probably the greatest cricketer ever.
In 2000, Shane was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet.
His 708 wickets was the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket, until it was broken by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan on December 3, 2007. He took over 1000 international wickets (in Tests and One-Day Internationals) - he was the second bowler to reach this milestone after Muttiah Muralitharan. A useful lower-order batsman Shane Warne also scored over 3000 Test runs and he holds the record for most Test runs without a century. Shane also captained Australia in some one day internationals and was generally regarded as the best Captain Australia never had.
As well as Australia, he also played Australian domestic cricket for his home state of Victoria, and English domestic cricket for Hampshire. He was captain of Hampshire for three seasons, from 2005 to 2007. He retired from international cricket in January 2007, at the end of Australia's 5-0 Ashes series victory over England.
Shane took over from Ally McCoist as team captain on the BBC television sports quiz, A Question of Sport in September 2007. For the 2007 / 8 Australian cricket series, Shane took over as VB spokesperson from David Boon. He had a talking figurine as part of the promotion, which continued from the "Talking Boony" doll.
In January 2008, Shane signed a major two year agreement with 888 Poker (owned by 888 Holdings PLC, a public listed company in London) to represent them at poker events around the world including the Aussie Millions, World Series of Poker and the 888 UK Poker Open. This deal was renewed in 2011.
Shane had his own exclusive column in the Times for 12 years and recently signed a four year deal with The Daily Telegraph.
A new Codmasters Ashes game where Shane is featured was originally released in Summer 2009 and a new version was released in 2011.
In March 2008, Shane signed to play in the Indian Premier League for the Jaipur team, Rajasthan Royals. In the first edition of the tournament, where he played the roles of both captain and coach, he led his team to victory against the Chennai Super Kings in a cliffhanger final match on June 1, 2008.
In 2009 and 2010, Shane continued as both coach and captain for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. He returned to continue both jobs in India in 2011 before announcing his retirement from the IPL at the end of the IPL 2011 season.
Shane commentated for Sky Sports for the duration of the Ashes in England in 2009 and in Australia in 2010/11. In 2011 he commentated again for Sky Sports for the Test match series England v India.
Shane Warne will be playing in the Dunhill Golf Championships taking place in Scotland commencing on the 29th of September 2011.
Photo : CJP Designs