Warne will be ready

THE most famous of Shane Warne's 583 Test cricket victims believes the looming Ashes series will be the best thing to snap the leg spinner from his personal turmoil.

Former England captain Mike Gatting, bowled by Warne's "ball of the century" at Old Trafford in 1993, said Warne's marriage breakdown and his lost television contract would be playing on his mind at Lord's on July 21, but would not linger as a distraction too long. Quoted on FoxSports, Gatting said:

"It's likely to be in the back of his mind, I'm sure. You don't want something like that to really affect a great bowler like that, you want to be able to perform and bowl. But unfortunately these things happen and you've got to learn to cope with that."