Warne to join ICC Hall of Fame

Shane Warne will be inducted into the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame  during the second Ashes Test between England and Australia.

Warne, who represented Australia in 145 Tests between 1992 and 2007 and was the first bowler to take 700 Test wickets, will join the likes of Sir Don Bradman.

He will be formally inducted during the tea interval of the second day at Lord's on 19 July.

"I'm very honoured and proud," said the former leg spinner, 43.

"I'd like to thank the voting academy very much for even considering me. I'm looking forward to celebrating my induction with my friends and family in front of the crowd at Lord's during the second Ashes Test."

Shane Warne hit 12 Test half-centuries, but the closest he came to scoring a century was against New Zealand in Perth in November 2001. He was caught attempting a slog-sweep off Daniel Vettori. Later, TV replays showed that the delivery was in fact a no-ball.

Warne ended his Test career with 708 wickets, at an average of 25.41, and 3,154 Test runs, the most any player in the game has made without scoring a hundred.

His final Test was at the Sydney Cricket Ground,  the stadium where he made his Test debut against India in 1992,  as Australia completed a 5-0 whitewash of England in the 2006-07 Ashes.

The Victorian also took 293 wickets in 194 one-day internationals at an average of 25.73, and was man-of-the match as Australia beat Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup final at Lord's.

He was sent home ahead of the 2003 World Cup after a drugs test during a one-day series in Australia returned a positive result for a banned diuretic.

The Australian Cricket Board Anti-Doping Committee subsequently found Warne guilty of breaching the Board's drug code  and banned him for 12 months.

The other 2012-2013 inductees are the former West Indies captain Brian Lara, Warne's compatriot Glenn McGrath and England's Enid Bakewell, who became the third woman cricketer in the ICC Hall of Fame after Rachel Heyhoe-Flint and Belinda Clark.

Lara and Bakewell were inducted last year at the LG ICC Awards in Colombo in September, while McGrath received the accolade during the Sydney Test between Australia and Sri Lanka in January this year.

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