Warne Honoured by Swann

Shane Warne is one of the greatest bowlers to have ever played the game and considered by many to be the greatest to have ever lived. He was the first player to ever break seven hundred wickets finishing his test career with seven hundred and eight wickets in one hundred and forty five test matches.

He was also prolific in one day internationals taking two hundred and ninety three in just less than two hundred games for the Australian national team. The forty two year old leg spinner has now swapped the sport for the commentary box, and has been a popular commentator since retiring from all forms of cricket in 2008 after winning the Indian Premier League with the Chennai super kings where he played in a dual role of captain and coach. The player is also well known for applying for his home state of Victoria and English side Hampshire.

England’s Grahame Swann has recently be compared to the Australian spinner, but Swann was quick to dismiss the comparisons as a “wind-up” believing that he is not even in the same league as the Australian record breaker. Swann even went as far to say that Warne was the greatest of all time and could have dismissed an entire team with a mango; such was his ability with the ball.

Warne remains involved in cricket playing in charity matches and also doing coaching, which he hopes he can continue to a higher level. Warne has already met with a number of international spinners for one on one discussion including Grahame Swann who said he was honoured to have the chance to meet and discuss the game with someone who is a cricketing legend. Warne will always be remembered for his ability and will for a long time be considered one of the best to ever play the game.

Pakistan still in Discussions

Zimbabwe, South Africa as well as Malaysia are being considered among the venues that would host the One Day International series between Pakistan and the Australia Cricket Team at the end of August. The fallen giants of Asian cricket have had to contend with playing their home series in neutral venues with no teams willing to take the risk of coming down to the war torn nation after a terrorist attack on the touring Sri Lankan team bus back in 2009 which killed three people.

The series was confirmed to be held in Sri Lanka but the island nation pulled out at the last moment because of the clash of timings with its own Twenty 20 league, the Sri Lanka Premier League which is also slated to be held at that time. According to a spokesperson for the Pakistan Cricket Board, a decision on the venue will be made in a meeting next week but he did name the three countries in contention for the role of host.

But what has stunned many people is the option of Zimbabwe being a possible choice of venue after the protests which was mainly led by the players of the Australia Cricket Team against the dictatorial regime of Robert Mugabe in the country ahead of the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup that was hosted jointly by South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The Australian team has not toured the African country since then and it is highly likely that they will not tour it if it was announced as a venue.

The Australia Cricket Team is slated to play in five One Day Internationals as well as two Twenty 20 Internationals against Pakistan in the tour and it would mean that the tour would be quite long, so Zimbabwe might not be the best option for a venue after all.