Warne shuns cricket for poker

The unexpected was always the essential stock-in-trade of the Australian cricketer Shane Warne. His ability to deceive opposing batsmen through the arts of spin and flight had brought him 708 victims in five-day test matches - a record, at the time - when he retired from international cricket at the beginning of 2007, and he has shown the same ability to produce surprises off the pitch.

A few months ago, it was reported that he was considering invoking his mother’s ancestry and seeking a German passport, an ingenious device for making him a European Union citizen and sidestepping quotas governing the number of non-EU players in English county cricket, where he plays for and is captain of Hampshire.

Now comes the announcement that he has joined the professional poker circuit, signing with the online company 888.com to play in the World Series of Poker, starting in this week’s Aussie Millions tournament in his hometown, Melbourne.

Warne, 38, said that he expected to play in events in the United States, New Zealand, South Africa and Britain during 2008 and that he still had a great deal to learn about poker.

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