Shane Warne’s lucrative $1.25m phone call

In his prime, everyone wanted a piece of Shane Warne. In his 2018 book, Warne revealed how he made an eye-watering sum with one phone call.

In his prime, everyone wanted a piece of Shane Warne. In his 2018 book, Warne revealed how he made an eye-watering sum with one phone call.

Warne, who would go on to amass a staggering $50 million fortune, outdid himself in 1999 with a phone call to his UK-based agent Michael Cohen.

In the biography Spin King, Warne wrote about the bidding war for his services in English county cricket.

“Michael called with an offer of 150,000 pounds from (county cricket club) Hampshire, plus car, house and flights. Then there was a radio deal. Six shows at 500 pounds a pop,” Warne wrote.

“There was an agreement with The Times for 10 columns at 12,000 pounds each and a 200,000 pound book deal to tell my story so far with Hodder and Stoughtoun. $500,000 pounds in one phone call!”

Shane Warne made more than $1m in a single phone call in 1999. Picture: Matthew Fearn/Getty Images

The exchange rate at the time meant Warne made something in the vicinity of $1.25 million that day.

As news.com.au previously reported, Warne’s started making money off the field by 1994, just two years after his cricket career began.

By 2004, the cricket legend’s high profile meant his appearances were earning him $300,000 a year.

At the time of his death, Warne worked as a commentator for Sky Sports and Fox Cricket. In 2018 it was reported he was the top-paid member of Fox Sport’s cricket commentary team. While his exact pay was undisclosed, it’s believed he was getting paid above the $7000 per day rate he earned at Channel 9.

In 1998, Warne was allegedly paid $200,000 by Pharmacia Upjohn – which manufactured Nicorette – to endorse their nicotine-replacement product. It had been reported that Warne had used their products in attempts to reduce his 40-cigarette-a-day habit. While he was later photographed smoking a cigarette after a tour in Barbados, it appears the company didn’t request a return payment.

Warne is pictured with James Packer and the casino tycoon’s now ex-wife Erica Packer at the Melbourne Cup in 2012. (Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage)

While the specifics around cost have never been disclosed, Warne also lent his support to products, services and brands like VB Beer, Pepsi, McDonalds, pasta sauce brand Leggos, SPC Baked Beans, Just Jeans, Nike, Oakley sunglasses, eBay, hair loss treatment program Advanced Hair Studio, Marshall car batteries, fantasy Big Bash League game SuperCoach and Message On Hold — a service which provided music or messages for callers who were put on hold.

Although Warne would have received varying amounts from these brands depending on his commitments and his career at the time, The Age reports he received $1m for his five-year Nike contract and $200,000 and $80,000 from his three-year Oakley contract and work with Just Jeans from in late 90s.

One of his longest partnerships was his 18-year ambassadorship of hair loss treatment centre Advanced Hair Studio. Beginning in 2004, Mr Warne credited the program with easing his male pattern baldness through their laser treatments.

Warne is pictured posing with actress Pamela Anderson during a Valentines Day party in a Melbourne nighctlub in 2006. Photo by David Teuma/Getty Images

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph’s Confidential in 2020, Warne credited himself with making hairplants “cool”.

“I think I have helped so it is cool to do it rather than that stigma of being known as the guy

who has had his hair done,” he said.

“It is not like the 60s when people used to stick on the toupee and people would take the micky because they could tell, it is not like that anymore”.

However, while appearing on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! in 2016 – a role that reportedly made him $2m – Warne said that there was one endorsement boundary he refused to cross.

“Erectile dysfunction,” he said when asked about product celebrity branding. “Condoms, I’ve been asked to do those. I said no to both of them.”