Warne remembered as World Cup arrives in Melbourne

EXCLUSIVE

Cricket fans, the world over, are eagerly looking forward to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, to be held in September, this year, in India, and we, in Sri Lanka, are hoping that our boys could repeat the success we had in 1996 when we won the Cup, beating Australia in the finals.

Preparations are underway for this year’s event, with the World Cup Trophy, now on its global journey, before arriving in India.

The Trophy arrived in Melbourne, Australia, and the honour to welcome the Trophy was bestowed on Sri Lankan-Australian Johann Jayasinha, who is very much a part of the ICC Champions Group, in Australia.

Johann, by the way, regularly keeps our readers updated with the activities taking place, Down Under.

The Trophy landed, in Melbourne, at the iconic MCG, to pay tribute to Australian legend Shane Warne.

The Trophy sat underneath the newly named Shane Warne Stand, and then later by the statue of the spin-king, outside the stadium, with fans taking in the scene.

Playing at the MCG museum was a recording of Warne, talking through his player-of-the-match performance in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 1999 semi-final between Australia and South Africa.

Warne had recounted that he had been struggling for fitness, and form, leading into the match, but decided, on that day, he would just ‘give the ball a rip’. A mindset that saw him turn the match Australia’s way.

No foreign cricketer is likely to ever capture the hearts of Sri Lankans quite like Shane Warne did when he played an active role during the Tsunami crisis.

Memories…when the late cricket legend celebrated his
engagement to ex-fiancee, Liz Hurley, in Sri Lanka

Warne even celebrated his engagement to ex-fiancee, Liz Hurley, in Sri Lanka.

The World Cup Trophy also visited Mark Waugh, at the Fox Sports studios, where the former teammate of Warne shared his memories from the famous semi-final fixture.

The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Trophy also took in some sites around Melbourne, including the famous Hosier Lane. No trip to Melbourne would be complete without sampling the local coffee, where Australian champion latte artist Victor Vu took on the challenge of imprinting cricket’s biggest global prize on to his famous local brew.

Through a varied programme of activations, the Trophy Tour aims to give one million fans the chance to connect with the prized silverware, ahead of the highly anticipated global event, and will visit locations in 18 countries, across five continents.

Embarking on its first full-scale global tour, since 2019, the Trophy Tour will recreate the sense of occasion and carnival-like atmosphere, synonymous with Cricket World Cups, through a series of large-scale activations at some of the world’s most iconic destinations.

In addition to its journey across over 20 cities in India, and other participating countries, the Trophy will also tour a number of emerging nations, such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, Uganda, France, Italy and the United States, enabling new and existing fans to get a glimpse of world cricket’s ultimate prize.

Sri Lankans would have the opportunity of checking out the World Cup Trophy, on August 5th and 6th, in Colombo.