The story of how Shane Warne brought his magic to the Lancashire League in incredible Accrington CC season

The news of Shane Warne’s death from a suspected heart attack aged 52 shocked the cricketing world on Friday. Warne, one of the game’s most-loved figures, was found unresponsive in his villa on the Thai island of Koh Samui just hours after posting a touching tribute to his hero Rod Marsh, who also died on Friday aged 74.

Warne, the greatest leg-spinner in cricket history, took over 700 Test wickets for Australia in a stellar career. His delivery to dismiss Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in the 1993 Ashes - dubbed the ‘Ball of the Century’ - was trending on social media today. Remarkably, that was Warne’s first ever delivery in an Ashes series and helped to build his reputation as one of England’s great adversaries from Down Under.

Watching that clip today, it is clear that Warne was built for Test cricket from the very start - but just two years earlier and a short hop up the road, he had been booed from the pitch playing for Accrington in the Lancashire League. Having been bowled out for a duck and comfortably dispatched by the use of local batsman Jack Simpson’s regular sweep shot, punters and players were left scratching their heads as to what the blonde, fresh-faced Aussie was doing there.

ALSO READ: Full story as Shane Warne dies at 52

“The very first ball he bowled at me pitched outside leg stump,” Simpson told Wisden in 2019. “And I was looking to help it on its way, but I absolutely nailed it and it went for four. He came down the wicket, saying: ‘What’s your f****** game, sweeping leg-spin?’ I said: ‘If you keep bowling there, I’ll keep sweeping you’.”

The week before Warne returned decent figures with the ball on his debut at Burnley, taking two wickets, but then got run out for two. Accrington’s staff