Former Australian cricketer Shane Warne tests positive for COVID-19, in self-isolation

Former Australian cricketer Shane Warne has tested positive for COVID-19, reports ESPNCricinfo. The spin legend is, who is currently coaching the team London Spirits in the tournament ‘The Hundred‘, has gone into self-isolation with another unnamed member of the management.

Ahead of London Spirits’ game against Southern Brave, Warne started feeling unwell on Sunday morning. The match was to be played at Lord’s later on Sunday.

Warne then underwent a lateral flow test, which returned positive, said the report. He is still awaiting the result of a PCR test.

None of the players from the Spirits’ squad have been affected as of now.

Also read| The Hundred: Full list of teams and squads

The 51-year-old former Australia leg-spinner, who took 708 wickets from 145 Tests between 1992 and 2007, is the second head coach in the men’s competition to test positive for COVID-19 in the first 10 days of the Hundred.

Last weekend, former Zimbabwe cricketer and Trent Rockets head coach Andy Flower had tested positive for COVID-19. Flower has since then missed three of his sides’ games. Paul Franks has taken over as the coach of Trent Rockets in Flower’s absence.

Steven Mullaney, who was deemed a close contact of Flower’s, is the only player in the competition to have been forced to self-isolate as things stand.

London Spirits, the side being coached by Warne, have been winless in their first three games in the Hundred. They have registered two defeats and a no-result. They play Southern Brave at Lord’s on Sunday.

David Ripley, the Northamptonshire head coach and one of the Spirit’s assistants, will act as head coach in Warne’s absence.

The Hundred, a new 100 balls per side format, features eight newly created teams, all with men’s and women’s XIs.

Many within English cricket fear it could ‘cannibalise’ existing domestic competitions within the men’s 18 first-class county set-up, but the England and Wales Cricket Board are convinced it is the best way to attract a new audience to the sport and boost the women’s game.