Shane Warne is a professional cricketer, born on September 13, 1969 in Upper Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Australia. He was married to Simone Callahan and has three children Brooke, Summer and Jackson. This leg-break bowler, who is known by the nicknames “Warney” and “Warnie”, bats right-handed.
On January 2, 1992, Shane Warne made his Test debut for the Australian side in a match against India at Sydney Cricket Ground, where he dismissed Ravi Shastri to claim his maiden Test wicket. A couple of years later, he made his presence felt in the international cricket scene with a match-winning performance against West Indies, finishing with figures of 7 for 52. During the 1993 Ashes series, Shane Warne bowled what is known as the "Ball of the Century" or "Gatting Ball" with which he got the wicket of England’s Mike Gatting. He continued his great form and cemented his place in the Test side. In 2000, Shane Warne was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler to be named in that list.
In March 2004, Shane Warne became the second cricketer after Courtney Walsh of the West Indies to take 500 Test wickets, his 500th wicket being Hashan Tillakaratne from Sri Lanka. On October 15, 2004, he broke the record for the most career wickets in Test cricket in a match against India. That year, he was one of the four Australian cricketers to have been named in "Richie Benaud's Greatest XI". On August 11, 2005, with the wicket of Marcus Trescothick from England, he became the first bowler in the cricket history to take 600 Test wickets. In the same year, Shane Warne broke the record for the most Test wickets in a calendar year by taking 96 wickets, including 40 wickets from the 2005 Ashes series at an average of 19.92. For his impressive performance, he was named the Overseas Personality in British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Sports Personality of the Year award. In 2006 Shane Warne created history by taking his 700th wicket after getting English batsman Andrew Strauss out at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day, a feat which made him the most successful bowler in the history of Test cricket. In the final Test match of his career, Shane Warne got his 1000th total international wicket by dismissing Monty Panesar. When he bid adieu to Test cricket he had scalped 708 wickets in Tests, Andrew Flintoff being his 708th victim. In his career spanning fifteen years he has also scored 3154 runs, including a personal best of 99, making him the batsman with most Test runs without scoring a century. He was also a great slip fielder and is listed seventh in the list of most catches by a non-wicketkeeper in Test cricket.
Shane Warne made his One Day International (ODI) debut for Australia on March 24, 1993, in a match against New Zealand and since then, has been a regular in the Australian side. He was an integral part of the team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England and was the Man of the Match in both the semifinal and the final. Shane Warne played his last game in January 2003 and announced his retirement from ODI cricket. Shane Warne has also captained the Australian side a few times and has won ten matches out of the eleven that he had captained. In his ODI career, he has taken a total of 293 wickets from 194 matches with a personal best of 5 for 33.
In 2008, Shane Warne signed with the Indian Premier League (IPL) side Rajasthan Royals and was named as the captain as well as the coach of the side. On April 19, 2008, he played his first match against Delhi Daredevils for this side. In his second game for this side in a match against Kings XI Punjab, he guided his team to a six-wicket victory. Following this, he led his side to 4 match winning streak, as his side defeated teams such as Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings. In the semi-final of this tournament Rajasthan Royals defeated Delhi Daredevils by 105 runs and entered the final of this tournament. In the final, Shane Warne guided his side to a three-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings and lifted the trophy in the inaugural edition of the IPL. Shane Warne ended this tournament on a high note by finishing second in the Top 10 IPL bowlers list with 19 wickets.
In 2006, Shane Warne was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Southampton Solent University for services rendered to cricket. He is also one of the four Australian cricketers to have his portrait hung in the Long Room at Lord's Cricket Ground.
Shane Warne has written his autobiography titled My Autobiography and has also co-authored Shane Warne: My Official Illustrated Career by Richie Benaud and Shane Warne: My Own Story by Mark Ray. Post retirement, Shane Warne does charity work for his foundation, which helps seriously ill and underprivileged children.
