England captain Eoin Morgan has paid an emotional tribute to the late great Shane Warne, describing him as "a hugely charismatic, inspirational human being".
Warne tragically passed away last month at the age of just 52 after suffering a heart attack while on holiday in Thailand. And Morgan had the opportunity to work with Warne in The Hundred.
At London Spirit, Warne was head coach and Morgan was captain, with the pair working very closely together during the inaugural edition of The Hundred. "It was devastating news," Morgan told ESPNcricinfo when asked about Warne's passing.
"To be quite frank, it still hasn't really sunk in. Alongside many other people around the world, I'll miss the hell out of him.
"He's a guy I was very fortunate to spend a lot of time with - a hugely charismatic, inspirational human being that I shared some memories with. He's a very infectious guy and probably the thing he was most passionate about was talking about cricket.
"When he was in charge of the London Spirit, hearing him talk about cricket and learning from him by listening to him was as close as I got to him. We're going to miss him."
Trevor Bayliss will coach London Spirit in this year's Hundred, reuniting him with Morgan after the pair masterminded England's dramatic 2019 World Cup win. The Hundred draft recently took place and several domestic players bagged big money deals ahead of established international superstars like Chris Gayle, David Warner and Babar Azam.
Five English players were named as top-bracket picks, Liam Dawson, Joe Clarke, Tom Banton, Laurie Evans and Tom Kohler-Cadmore, joining Adil Rashid, Jason Roy and Liam Livingstone on £125,000 deals. And Morgan is keen to see how some of those players cope with the added pressure, particularly with a T20 World Cup set to take place later this year.
"Watching the reaction of how they play under those circumstances should give us a nice insight into them," Morgan explained. "It presents a brilliant opportunity for those guys, but it also adds another type of pressure that we didn't have previously to this.
"In an open draft, where everybody knows your value and worth and there's a number beside your name, it adds a different dynamic. For me as England captain, that's a good insight as to how a guy will deal with the pressure of having the tag of being ranked ahead of somebody else, or picked at a certain position."
