Picture Credit: Twitter
Late Australia spin legend Shane Warne and women's team skipper Meg Lanning were amongst the personalities honoured in the Queen's Birthday 2022 Honours List. Both are known to have made a tremendous contribution in the field of cricket and their inclusion in the list is a recognition of the same.
The tragic death of Warne on March 4 in Thailand, shocked the entire sports fraternity as he remained the most accomplished leg spinner in the world to date and earned several laurels to his name. Notably, Warne is the second-highest Test wicket-taker in the world with 708 scalps and 293 in ODIs. He is also the second on the list of all-time international wicket-takers.
Apart from cricket, Warne made an immense contribution to society through his noble acts like auctioning his Baggy Green Test cap and its earnings were distributed to bushfire victims, his Shane Warne Foundation also raised AUD 7.8 million to support ill and underprivileged children in Australia. Cricket Australia stated that Shane Warne has been honoured as the Officer (AO) of the General Division for his distinguished services.
"Warne has been recognised for his service to cricket as a player, role model, and commentator, to the community through charitable initiatives and for philanthropic contributions," said CA.
Meanwhile, Australia's Women's skipper Meg Lanning was honoured as a Member (AM) of the General Division in order to recognise her significant service to women's cricket at the elite level. Notably, Lanning has been part of six World Cup-winning campaigns and has also been named as Women’s T20 player of the year (2014) and ODI player of the year in 2015.
CA congratulated Lanning by stating that they are enormously proud of their skipper. "Her leadership and performances have been central to the outstanding success of our women’s team," added CA.
Apart from Warne and Lanning, Muriel Picton, former Australia women’s Test skipper and CA’s Hall of Fame inductee Doug Walters have also been honoured in the same list as Meg Lanning. The Member (AM) of the General Division has been given to acknowledge their significant service to the field of cricket at the elite level.