CELEBRITY WITH AMANDA KELLER

SHANE WARNE & KING OF SPIN Amanda accepts a challenge from cricket superstar Shane Warne to take to the crease at the MCG and face an over bowled by the King of Spin himself. But the “reality” isn’t quite what she was expecting… Shane’s new virtual reality and mobile app game, King of Spin is a chance to knock one out of the park against cricketing legend Shane Warne. Amanda and Shane chat about the making of the games, what it’s like to face himself on the cricket pitch and his time on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. Then, when it’s finally time to face off against a digital Warney, will she hit it for six or will it be back to the pavilion for Amanda?

 

 

ABOUT SHANE WARNE Shane Warne, born September 13, 1969, in Ferntree Gully, Victoria, is one of Australia’s most successful sportspeople and has often been called the greatest bowler ever to play cricket.

Though he made his test cricket debut in 1992 against India, it was during the 1993 Ashes series that he really made his mark when in his very first test against England, on his very first ball of the series, Shane dismissed batsman Mike Gatting with what would become known as the “Ball of the Century”. It marked the revival of leg spin bowling in cricket and the beginning of Warne’s spectacular career as the “king of spin”.

In 2007, Shane retired from international test cricket after helping Australia to a 5-0 Ashes series victory over England. He still holds the record for most wickets taken by an Australian with 708 wickets in 148 tests.

In the years since his test retirement Shane has been involved in the Indian Premier League, the Australian Big Bash League and more recently he has been developing the Cricket All Stars League in the USA alongside fellow-great Sachin Tendulkar.

In 2011 the Melbourne Cricket Ground immortalized Shane by unveiling a bronze statue of him and inducting him into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Shane came fourth on the 2016 season of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

Shane has three children, daughters Summer and Brooke, and son Jackson.

ABOUT KING OF SPIN King of Spin is a virtual reality game made for the HTC Vive gaming system. Players face Shane Warne and his legendary deliveries on the pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Every cricket fan’s dream; it’s finally your chance to knock Warney out of the park, if you can…

Don’t worry you don’t have a VR kit, you can still experience the thrill of stepping onto the hallowed turf of the MCG - there is also a mobile version of the game where you actually take on the role of Shane and bowl his famous deliveries yourself using tap and swipe controls on your smart phone or tablet. The mobile app is available for Apple iOS and Android.

The games are a collaboration between Shane, Wicked Witch Software and Oceanic Studios, two game and software developers based in Melbourne. The idea for the game originated in 2013, when Shane decided that given how often he is still asked about spin

 

 

bowling he should do a more modern version of the successful spinners kits he released 20 years ago, integrating modern technology. Oceanic Studios and Wicked Witch quickly came aboard the project and started workshopping ideas for the game. At the time virtual reality gaming devices were exploding onto the market and the development team thought facing down Warney’s deliveries was a perfect fit for the emerging format. Shane says the game is also for all the fans would come up to him and tell him how they would love to "smash him" and that they could knock him out of the park - now they finally can.

Shane’s likeness was captured using a custom built “camera cage” - a rig of 24 high-resolution cameras that simultaneously photographed him from every angle. Those images were then stitched together in the computer to create a hyper-real 3D digital Warney. The HTC Vive virtual reality system is a headset, controllers and sensors that utilize “room scale” technology to turn a physical room into a 3D space, which allows you to actually move around naturally within the virtual world of the game. It retails for about $1000 and can be purchased from select Microsoft Stores and online from the US. For more details and store links go to www.shanewarne.com

WEBLINKS For more information visit: King of Spin Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/shanewarnekingofspin/ Shane Warne’s website: http://shanewarne.com Shane Warne I’m a Celebrity… Get me Out of Here! profile and clips: http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/im-a-celebrity-get-me-out-of-here/celebrities/shane About Wicket Witch: http://www.wicked-witch.com.au