“I am very pleased to be here as always this time not in a cricket capacity,” As boon said “I am in a role as an ambassador for the Tasmanian government who has initiated a trade mission through South East Asia. I’ve accompanied this delegation through India and Sri Lanka the purpose essentially is to initiate relationships through education, through government ministries on things that Tasmania and Sri Lanka have a lot in common. The Tasmanian government would like to open up relationships for inter trade or skills, high products in hospitality industry such as wine and some of the other produce.

“We know Sri Lanka are very much aware of their natural heritage and environment as we are. Over half of our state is in a protected status and heritage forests are renowned worldwide. From all reports the delegates have enjoyed the whole thing they love Sri Lanka and they’ve formulated some nice introductions and relationships with corresponding skill sets and industry here,” he said.

Boon said that he along with another former renowned cricketer from Tasmania and Australia Ricky Ponting were invited by the Tasmanian government as ambassadors to be part of the trade delegation because of their connection with cricket.

“Ricky Ponting helped them for the first half and I came in for the second half of the mission. We are both Tasmanians and we played cricket in all those countries so we have in common as well. Our cricketing careers give us an opportunity to go back to countries that love cricket as we do. People know us so it makes it easier with some of the introductions to move forward and through people’s knowledge of us to help the government and the delegates,” Boon said.

The number of times he’s been to Sri Lanka Boon said he had lost count. “I couldn’t put a number of the times I’ve been to Sri Lanka maybe about 15 to 20 times, five times in the last six years with the ICC. I’ve come as a player then as a selector during the World Cup and a couple of times with youth cricket. I met some very good friends here as well.

“I still recogise a lot of things that have not changed since I first came in 1977. Those things are mainly historical in buildings. It’s wonderful that they have been kept in the way they have and modern Colombo in Sri Lanka has been built around that. The infrastructure in Colombo is to utilize the seaside in everything Galle Face road there’s more development happening it’s an obvious sign with constructions and overseas investments that the Sri Lankan economy is growing and tourism is going forward in leaps and bounds,”| said Boon.

“One of the biggest changes I’ve seen and hope to experience one day is how you opened up the east coast again and the number of resorts that have been built there beautiful on that side of the island. Colombo is safe, safe as any city can be I’ve never felt under threat here, the people have been very friendly, they are very open, helpful and this makes it enjoyable to come here. With my family, my wife has been here with me four times. My youngest daughter came with us last year and loved it. So whenever I am down, I sign up and see whether it is Sri Lanka that I am assigned to as match referee.”

ON CRICKET

Comparing the cricket played by Australia and Sri Lanka, Boon said that Sri Lanka cricket is not at all as Australian cricket at the highest level.

“I remember playing in Sri Lanka’s first ever Test match in Perth (in 1987) and it finished in three and a bit days but I think it’s fantastic where Sri Lanka cricket has gone suppose at a different level very similar to Tasmania cricket. In the Sheffield Shield we are the youngest but we grew, won a couple of Sheffield Shields and one-day competitions and produced cricketers for Australia. Sri Lanka has won series moved forward and they produced some of the best cricketers of the modern era. Your cricket has gone in leaps and bounds,” said Boon.

“I was not amazed there’s still some quality. I watched Sri Lanka play in the ODI series in England which I was overseeing. I secretly thought Oh, the Test series with Australia they are not going to have any chance. But within a very short space of time they’ve learnt their lesson. Some of those young kids in England through Fordy (Graham Ford), through Angelo’s (Angelo Mathews) leadership and the other coaching staff they’ve moved that forward at a rapid pace and they played beautifully in the Test series against Australia,” he said.

“I was not surprised at all. It’s a mental thing to get over that and move forward. To me that’s what they did. Australia didn’t play at their best especially facing the old wily Rangana (Herath) and the young kids went really well the young off-spinner (Dilruwan Perera). The batters especially young (Kusal) Mendis and (Dinesh) Chandimal they took the Australians and played exceptionally well to give the bowlers enough runs for them to bowl Australia out.”

However Sri Lanka failed to produce the same form in the ODI and T20I series which they lost to Australia.

“It’s a totally different game to me from Test cricket to ODI and T20I cricket. There are changes in personnel and format of the game. Just because they won the Test series doesn’t mean that they can automatically win in the other two formats,” said Boon. “I think probably what may have occurred is with the change of some personnel with that team who had not experienced defeats in Test cricket they come with a positive mental attitude to their roles and uplift the other guys who have been flat-footed during the Test series.”

Boon played for Australia in 107 Tests and 181 ODIs between 1984 and 1996 as a right-hand top order batsman. He was man of the final when Australia won their first World Cup under Allan Border in 1987. After retiring from all cricket in 1999 Boon accepted a position in marketing with the Tasmanian Cricket Association in Hobart and in 2000 replaced Geoff Marsh, his mate and former opening partner, as an Australia selector. Since 2011, he has been and ICC Match Referee which keeps him busy for six months of the year.

If the show made a newspaper headline, invariably it involved Warne. His actions and utterances, however banal or bizarre, became news in Australia. He said he believed that aliens “made” the first humans out of monkeys and built the pyramids, confessed a fear of spiders and was bitten on the face by a non-venomous snake. Seemingly anything Warne-related had news value.

This is despite the fact Warne stopped terrorising Test cricket’s finest batsmen in 2007. He has swapped playing for commentating and the allure of the former leg-spinner shows no signs of abating in Australia.

His 708 Test wickets plus 293 in one-day internationals are 1001 reasons why this rough-hewn son of suburban Melbourne should hold a special place in the history of his sport-mad country.

Despite repeated controversies, it seems nothing can dim the headline power of the man teammates used to call Hollywood.

Charity case

It remains to be seen whether a simmering drama over his children’s charity, The Shane Warne Foundation, will tarnish Warne’s appeal with the Australian public. The charity recently closed, blaming “unwarranted speculation” about how much of its proceeds reached the needy.

Regardless of the outcome, most would predict Warne to keep barrelling on in the Teflon-coated way to which Australians have become accustomed. Not everyone loves him, but you certainly can’t escape him.

“He’s Australia’s biggest celebrity by far. No-one comes close and no-one ever will,” says Dr Steve Georgiakis, senior lecturer on sports studies at the University of Sydney.

“(Australian producer-director) George Miller won six Oscars for Mad Max: Fury Road, but at that time most people here were still talking about Warnie and what he was doing on I’m A Celebrity.”

One simple test highlights the Warne fascination. Google Steve Waugh – a revered cricketing hero and Australian of the Year in 2004 – and you’ll find 503,000 results. Another Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, will yield 521,000 results. Type Shane Warne and you’ll find 7,230,000.

“Kids now don’t really know much about Steve Waugh. But they all still know Shane Warne,” Dr Georgakis says.

Warne’s penchant for off-field controversy is well known. During his unrivalled playing career, he was involved in several sex scandals which led to the end of his marriage to Simone Callahan, and to his sacking as Australia vice-captain.

Among other dramas, the father of three was banned from cricket for a year in 2003 for taking a diuretic, which he maintained was not about enhancing his performance but his looks. He was punished for involvement with an Indian bookmaker and pilloried for snatching a camera from a teenage boy who’d taken his photograph while he was smoking. Warne had signed an endorsement deal with a nicotine-substitute manufacturer.

Another major media moment for the 46-year-old, who retired from all forms of cricket in 2013, was his surprise engagement to British model-actress Liz Hurley. The relationship ended three years ago and Warne has since said he’d like his “good friend” to return her engagement ring.

His net worth is commonly estimated at between A$30m (£17m) and A$50m. And like many Hollywood celebrities, he’s turned to doctors to to keep up his looks. He admits to using Botox, but denies persistent rumours he’s had plastic surgery.

‘Do gooders get stuffed’

But more than anything, it’s what comes out of Warne’s mouth that generates controversy.

After Australia won last year’s World Cup, Warne was slammed for conducting several post-match interviews where he repeatedly asked the “boys” how “thirsty” they were for a celebratory alcohol binge. His response was to Tweet:

“Do gooders get stuffed. Straya (Australia) is the best place in the world, not politically correct, keep it real. Aussies celebrate properly ! #thirsty”

He repeated the “get stuffed” line to critics of his charity upon exiting I’m A Celebrity, in which he also labelled Waugh “the most selfish cricketer I’ve played with”.

“The more PC the world gets, the more he stands out,” says Robert Craddock, Australia’s most senior cricket journalist. “While everyone else is minding their Ps and Qs, he’s as straight as they come and says what he thinks.

“That makes him a very popular commentator, and it also generates part of the fascination with him.”

Warne, who’s often likened his life to a soap opera, and who was in fact the subject of a stage show called Shane Warne: The Musical, said in a recent interview that he had “always been me”.

“I don’t think there’s been many sportsmen on the planet, really, that have been through some of the stuff that I’ve been through, both from a personal thing, the ups, the highs and the lows,” he told Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph

“Whether you like me or don’t like me, people always have an opinion about me, that’s just the way it is.”

Controversies aside, Warne was probably the most talented bowler international cricket has known in its 139 years – and possibly the most valuable single contributor to any side in history.

“He’s also still big because it’s really coming clear now as the years pass that he was an absolute one-off,” Craddock says.

“Australia’s had 12 spinners since Warne, but none of them has come near him for ability, charisma, or his appetite for derring do, and his penchant for controversy.”

Smith follows in the footsteps of Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Mitchell Johnson (2009 and 2014) and Michael Clarke (2013) to lift the coveted trophy since the inception of the awards in 2004.

During the voting period, which ran from 18 September 2014 to 13 September 2015, the 26-year-old from New South Wales finished as the leading run-scorer in Tests with 1,734 runs in 25 innings of 13 matches at an average of 82.57. This included seven centuries and six half-centuries.

In 26 One-Day Internationals, Smith scored 1,249 runs at an average of just under 60 with four centuries and eight half-centuries. He was a member of the Australia side which won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year.

South Africa’s ODI captain AB de Villiers has been named as the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year. He had also won this award in 2010. In the voting period, de Villiers scored 1,265 runs in 20 innings at an average of just over 79 and a strike-rate of 128.4.

He hit two centuries and nine half-centuries. Earlier this month, de Villiers was named as the captain of the ICC ODI Team of the Year.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has won the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for inspiring his side to play the game in its true spirit.

This was clearly evident throughout the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and in particular in the semi-final where McCullum showed humility and exemplary sportsmanship by inviting de Villiers and his side to the New Zealand’s dressing room after a closely-fought match.

Richard Kettleborough of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires has won his third successive David Shepherd Trophy for the ICC Umpire of the Year. He is the third umpire to a complete a hat-trick of titles after Simon Taufel (2004 to 2008) and Aleem Dar (2009-2011).

The full list of ICC Award 2015 winners is:

ICC Cricketer of the Year
(Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy)
– Steve Smith (Australia)

ICC Test Cricketer of the Year
– Steve Smith (Australia)

ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year
– AB de Villiers (South Africa)

ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year
– Meg Lanning (Australia)

ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year
– Stafanie Taylor (West Indies)

ICC T20I Performance of the Year

– Faf du Plessis (South Africa) (119, 56 balls, 11×4, 5×6 – 2nd T20I vs West Indies, 11 January 2015, Johannesburg)

ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year
– Josh Hazlewood (Australia)

ICC Associate/Affiliate Cricketer of the Year
– Khurram Khan (UAE)

ICC Spirit of Cricket Award
– Brendon McCullum (New Zealand)

ICC Umpire of the Year
(David Shepherd Trophy)
– Richard Kettleborough

Tendulkar’s decision to put the opposition in to bat backfired as game’s heavyweights Kumar Sangakkara (70 off 30), Jacques Kallis (45 off 23) and Ricky Ponting (41 off 16) tore apart the equally celebrated Warriors’ bowling attack to smash 262 for five in 20 overs.

The likes of Tendulkar (33 off 20), Virender Sehwag (16 off 8), Shaun Pollock (55 off 22) Brian Lara (19 off 21) and Sourav Ganguly (12 off 12) enthralled a sizable crowd with their brief knocks at Minute Maid Park.

The ‘legends’ now travel to Los Angeles for the final game of the series on Saturday. The opening match, won by Warne’s men convincingly, was played in New York on November 7.

Though the match’s outcome was not that significant considering the games are a mere exhibition, the famed former cricketers from both teams displayed fierce competitive spirit.

The competitive zeal was evident when the dream opening pair of Tendulkar and Sehwag walked into the middle. What made the contest more mouthwatering was Wasim Akram opening the bowling for Warriors and swinging the ball in from the word go.

It was now Tendulkar’s turn to use the long handle. The master blaster hammered three fours and couple of sixes before his old foe Saqlain Mushtaq found his stumps with a fast off spinner.

Ganguly, playing his first game of the series, was expectedly rusty to start with but managed a four and a big hit in his run a ball innings.

Warne too appreciated the crowd response.

“The way we have been treated has been fantastic.

Sangakkara, who was the Man of the Match for his blazing knock, said: “It was a lot of fun, thank you Houston for the hospitality. Lot of credit to Sachin and Warney, they are pioneers on the field and they are breaking new round off the field. All outstanding players, legends of the game, the crowd participation has been unbelievable. Players have given their all on the field. “Participation of kids is vital for the growth of the game but for us, it has been humbling. Hopefully the game catches on in the US,” Sangakkara said. PTI

Warne’s Warriors: 262 for 5 (MP Vaughan 30, ML Hayden 32, JH Kallis 45, KC Sangakkara 70, RT Ponting 41, A Symonds 19 n.o., JN Rhodes 18 n.o., L Klusener 2 for 45)

Sachin’s Blasters: 205 for 8 (SR Tendulkar 33, L Klusener 21, SM Pollock 55, GP Swann 22 n.o., A Symonds 4 for 70)