Hampshire County Cricket Club begun on Hampshire's long-awaited new ground. The realisation of this move almost led the club to financial ruin, as encouragement from financial partners Sport England and the hiring of architect Sir Michael Hopkins had led the then part-time voluntary committee running the club to lose control of the budget. In 2000 Australian great Shane Warne was signed as the club's overseas player. The 2000 County Championship was to be the last season that Hampshire would play at the County Ground Southampton before they moved in 2001 to the new Rose Bowl ground just outside Southampton. 2001 also saw current club
Shane Warne Codemaster video games "Shane Warne Cricket" and "Shane Warne Cricket '99". Outside Australia these were known as "Brian Lara Cricket" and "Brian Lara Cricket '99". For the 2007/08 Australian cricket series, Warne took over as Victoria Bitter spokesperson from David Boon in the Boonanza promotion. Warne had a talking figurine as part of the promotion, which continued from the ""Talking Boony"" doll. In January 2008, Warne signed a two-year agreement with 888poker to represent them at poker events around the world including the Aussie Millions, World Series of Poker and the 888 UK Poker Open. This sponsorship agreement ended in