Will Shane Warne Give Up Poker for Cricket?

As Australia stares down the barrel of an embarrassing series loss to England in The Ashes, calls have been growing louder in the local cricket community for spin legend Shane Warne to take a break from poker and save his struggling team.

The King of Spin, who gave England batsmen nightmares during a 15-year Test career that saw him take 708 wickets, has been retired from the sport for four years.

But with the Aussies trailing 1-0 after losing by an innings in the Second Test in Adelaide, and with the threat looking of a first series loss at home to the old enemy since 1986, former team mates Dean Jones and Brett Lee and even a group of fundraising Queensland businessman have joined the calls for him to come back for one last hurrah.

Warney has made headlines this week for an entirely different reason, after an English tabloid exposed an alleged affair he is having with actress Liz Hurley.

But he has mostly been in the new for the last four years for his feats at the poker table, representing online gambling giant 888 at major tournaments including the World Series of Poker, Aussie Millions, the UK Poker Open, and the AAPT Sydney.

So it seems that if Warne does decide to give cricket another shot, it will poker's loss for the time being, but possibly poker's gain in the long-term as the Shane Warne profile becomes even larger.