Australian crowds still keen to see Warne perform his spin tricks

Leg spinner Shane Warne seems bigger than ever, as can be gauged by the 40,000, 50,000 or more crowd expected at the MCG tomorrow night, to see a 42-year-old play in the new Big Bash competition.

It is understood Warne also stands to receive some share of the hoped-for profits generated by the Melbourne Stars, who under the rules cannot give any player equity in the fledgling team, which due to the potent troika of Warne, Eddie McGuire and the MCG, shapes as the Big Bash's answer to Melbourne Victory - the biggest tent in the new circus.

His minders insist that Warne's decision to return to Australian cricket wasn't based on dollars, of which he has plenty.

''He's never been driven by money. He does the things he likes doing and he stays well shy of the stuff he doesn't like doing,'' the Sydney Morning Herald quoted James Erskine, the Sydney-based Englishman who heads Warne's management, Sports and Entertainment Ltd, in Australia, as saying.

Erskine added that: ''Eighty per cent of the things he's offered, we turn down.''

On the basis of publicity and interest generated, Cricket Australia reckons the Warne investment is cheap. Industry sources say that a combination of Foxtel/Fox Sports, CA and the Stars will pay him upwards of $500,000 for his seven Big Bash League matches, with the prospect of further ''upside'' if the Stars have commercial success.

Initially, according to Erskine, Warne was keen to play only two games.

Channel Nine, which had him slotted to commentate only the Boxing Day and New Year Tests, was happy for him to play more and talk less (on TV). We will hear him enough anyway, since he will be miked-up for TV in every Stars match.