ACCRINGTON Cricket Club president Peter Barratt says he's delighted to have been the man that brought Shane Warne to the Lancashire League.

In his role as chairman in 1991, Mr Barratt signed the Victorian leg-spinner, who is expected to announce his retirement from the game today, as a late replacement for fellow Aussie Shaun Young.

And despite a sticky start to his career at Thorneyholme Road, he showed his obvious promise by taking 73 wickets at an average of 15.4 and scoring 330 runs before he left at the end of August.

But, looking back, Mr Barratt said he would never have guessed Warne would become one of cricket's greatest players, taking a world record 699 Test wickets.

He said: "Shane was extremely pleasant and bubbly and he stayed with us for a while before we found him somewhere to live.

"You would watch him practising in the nets and the amount of turn he got was phenomenal.

"The keepers and slips we had at the time used to have a tough time coping with him and that's before he developed other deliveries.

"We knew he was going to be a good player, but we would never have guessed he would become what he has.

"He didn't take a wicket in his five games and he got no respect from Lancashire League players because he wasn't a name then.

"But he got used to the conditions and started to be a real threat.

"There was a lot of talk after he got famous about him being out on the town, but that's what 21-year-old lads do and it never interfered with his cricket.

"He was a nice guy and it's very nice for Accrington Cricket Club to be associated with a true legend of the game."