Shane Keith Warne (born 13 September 1969) is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet and the only one still playing at the time. He is also a cricket commentator and a professional poker player.
Warne played his first Test match in 1992, and his 708 wickets was the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket, until it was broken by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan on 3 December 2007. He took over 1000 international wickets (in Tests and One-Day Internationals)—he was the second bowler to reach this milestone after Muttiah Muralitharan. A useful lower-order batsman, Warne also scored over 3000 Test runs, and he holds the record for most Test runs without a century. His career was plagued by scandals off the field; these included a ban from cricket for testing positive for a prohibited substance, charges of bringing the game into disrepute by accepting money from bookmakers, and sexual indiscretions.
Frank Skinner (born Christopher Graham Collins on 28 January 1957 in West Bromwich)[citation needed] is a British writer, comedian and actor. He is best known for his television presenting, often alongside David Baddiel, with whom he also collaborated for the football song "Three Lions."
He is a radio presenter on the Saturday morning slot on Absolute Radio.
Skinner was born at Sandwell General Hospital, and grew up in a council house in neighbouring Oldbury. He was the youngest of four children born to West Cornforth-born former semi-professional footballer John Collins and his wife Doris. He has two older brothers, Keith and Terry, and an older sister, Nora. His father played for Spennymoor United before the Second World War, and met his mother in a local pub after Spennymoor had played West Bromwich Albion in an FA Cup game in 1937. Skinner attended Moat Farm Infant School from 1961 to 1964, St. Hubert's Roman Catholic Junior School from 1964 to 1968, and then Oldbury Technical Secondary School from September 1968.
Dame Edna is a character created and played by Australian dadaist performer and comedian, Barry Humphries, famous for her lilac-coloured or "wisteria hue" hair and cat eye glasses or "face furniture," her favourite flower, the gladiola ("gladdies") and her boisterous greeting: "Hello Possums!" As Dame Edna, Humphries has written several books including an autobiography, My Gorgeous Life, appeared in several films and hosted several television shows (on which Humphries has also appeared as himself and other alter-egos).
Humphries has regularly updated Edna, originally a drab Melbourne, Australia housewife satirising Australian suburbia. The character adopted an increasingly outlandish wardrobe after being performed in London in the 1960s, and grew in stature and popularity. Following film appearances and an elevation to damehood in the 1970s, the character evolved to "Housewife and Superstar", then "Megastar" and finally "Gigastar". Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Dame Edna became increasingly known and popular in the U.S. after multiple stage and television appearances.
Michael "Mike" William Gatting OBE (born 6 June 1957 in Kingsbury, England) is a former English cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Middlesex (1975–1998; captain 1983–1997) and for England from 1977 to 1995, captaining the national side in twenty-three Test matches between 1986 and 1988. He is currently the ECB Managing Director of Cricket Partnerships.
Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, stated, "talk of Gatting the batsman always evokes adjectives such as pugnacious, bold, brave and belligerent".
Before playing cricket professionally, Gatting used to play football for Watford reserves. As a fourteen year old goalkeeper on trial at Queen's Park Rangers, Gatting was told that he was too short and fat to make the grade. He turned to cricket for his sporting future, whilst QPR signed the other trailist that day, Phil Parkes.
In domestic cricket, Gatting was one of the most prolific batsmen in England for most of his career, but it took him several years to establish himself in the England team. He initially had great difficulty converting fifties into centuries at Test match level and he did not achieve a Test century until his fifty-fourth Test innings; he went on to accumulate ten hundreds in all. His highest Test score of 207 was scored in Madras; this was the second double century by an English cricketer in India in the same innings as Graeme Fowler, who scored the first double century: this was the first time that two English batsmen had made double centuries in the same Test innings. He captained England to an Ashes series victory in Australia in 1986/87.
Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell (born 29 April 1966) is a former English cricketer turned television personality. A slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler, "Tuffers" as he is known played 42 Tests and 20 One Day International matches for England, as well as playing for Middlesex from 1986 to 2002. With 121 Test wickets, Tufnell is as of 2009 35th in the list of most wickets by an England bowler, and his average of 37.68 is considered high for a genuine bowler, however Tufnell's personality, trademark behaviour and "great control of flight" when playing made him a popular sports personality. Following his retirement in 2002, Tufnell has built on his popularity with several television appearances. These include I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! which he won, They Think It's All Over, A Question of Sport and Strictly Come Dancing. He was presented with an honorary doctorate by Middlesex University on 20 July 2011, recognising his achievements in sport and the media.
Tufnell went to Highgate School where his cricketing prowess was recognised and he was appointed captain of the Junior School's First XI despite the fact he was not yet in the top year. On leaving Highgate he attended, and played cricket for, Southgate School. He then trained as a quantity surveyor and was faced with the tough decision of whether to play cricket professionally or to continue surveying quantities. He chose to do the former.