He remained part of Nine’s key on-air cricket talent until 2018 when he jumped to Fox Sports (his manager said he “would be the highest-paid” commentator there) after the pay TV network and Seven won the cricket broadcast rights. Along with appearances on UK broadcaster Sky, one industry source estimated Warne was netting about $1.5 million a year from commentary and TV appearances.
Australia’s enduring fascination with Warne translated into a $2 million fee to appear in the 2016 season of Ten’s reality TV show I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, which equalled the entire cast budget for the previous season.
According to his 2018 autobiography, he told Ten he wanted “two million bucks or nothing”.
“When you throw a big number out there, you’re not really expecting to get it”, he wrote. But he did get it, along with an agreement he could still smoke while filming in the South African bush and that his sponsors at Advanced Hair could fly out every three weeks to continue his treatment.
While piddling compared with some international sports stars, his playing contracts were handsome, too. In 2003, the Australian Cricket Board reportedly paid him around $400,000 as a retainer plus $11,000 per Test match.
His most lucrative decision may well have been to come out of retirement to join the Rajasthan Royals as coach/captain and lead them to victory in the inaugural Indian Premier League season in 2008.
On top of a $657,000 salary, he left after four seasons with a 3 per cent stake in the team. As of July 2021, the franchise was worth $340 million, valuing Warne’s stake at $10 million.
Shane Warne’s most lucrative career decision may well have been to come out of retirement to join the Rajasthan Royals as coach/captain and to take a stake in the Indian Premier League team.Credit:AP
In December 2019, the spinner said he hoped in a few years for the team to be worth $400 million. “Three per cent of $400 million is all right,” he told a podcast at the time.
And with riches came the lifestyle. He paid $5.4 million for a five-bedroom home in Brighton in early 2018, installing a nightclub basement with a wet bar, mirrored ceiling and a noise-activated mirror ball. It boasted a 500-bottle wine cellar complete with tasting room, and a gold-class home theatre.
He sold it in December 2020 for an unknown sum (the listing was for $6.8 million to $7.4 million), while paying $4 million for a 3000-square-metre property in Portsea’s Campbell Road and also planning to move into the luxury Saint Moritz development in St Kilda, where penthouses are priced from $9 million to $19 million.
A keen poker player, he was a regular at tournaments around the world with $151,000 in live tournament winnings, according to World Poker Tour.
There were business ventures, too. He launched a line of underwear – Spinners – in 2010 but the company managing the brand went bankrupt a year later. His mid-strength gin SevenZeroEight (a nod to his test bowling record) launched two years ago and has fared better, with the Western Australian distillery pivoting to hand sanitiser during the pandemic.
A treasure trove of the all-time great’s sporting memorabilia will also be worth a considerable sum, should anyone chose to sell it. Warne auctioned off his Baggy Green cap for $1 million to raise funds for victims of the 2020 bushfires.
In 2004, he founded the Shane Warne Foundation, which was established to help ill and underprivileged children and teenagers. But it shut down in 2017, following revelations it was running at a loss and had donated only between 11 to 32 cents of every dollar raised to beneficiaries since 2011.
How Shane Warne monetised his brilliant career
Source: Philippines Alive
