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SHANE Warne’s sex-ploits cost him the vice-captaincy of the Australian Test side in 2000, the chance to become one-day international skipper two years later and his Channel Nine contract in 2005.

His latest rendezvous, this time reportedly a steamy encounter with married actress Elizabeth Hurley in London, will almost certainly end any debate - serious or not - about returning to the Australian side and becoming an Ashes saviour.

Hurley today confirmed, that her marriage to Indian tycoon Arun Nayar, whom she wed in 2007, was over, writing: “Not a great day. For the record, my husband Arun & I separated a few months ago. Our close family & friends were aware of this.”

Whether the latest revelation again jeopardises Warne’s contract with the Nine network, and his flagging talkshow Warnie, remains to be seen.

The late Kerry Packer told Warne in 2005 that the negative publicity around his off-field life at the time meant his contract would not be renewed.

Warne briefly returned to his plush home in Melbourne’s bayside, driving with two of his children past a media pack.

Warne, dressed in black tracksuit pants and a black T-shirt, did not acknowledge the waiting media or answer his intercom after he returned to his Brighton home.

He flew into Melbourne last night from London, where he was filming interviews for his Nine Network chatshow.

While home this morning, Warne transferred suitcases from the boot of his black Mercedes before leaving about 20 minutes later with his two children.

The latest allegations in British tabloid The News of the World claims Hurley, who wed Indian tycoon Arun Nayar in 2007, spent two nights with serial bad boy Warne in his hotel suite last week.

Warne, 41, left immediately for London after commentating for Nine in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide to film interviews for his new show.

The paper claims the pair was captured on video in a series of ‘’sizzling public clinches”.

A witness told the paper: ”They were so passionate they looked like honeymooners. It was electric.”

The paper said the pair was seen exchanging kisses after popping out of Warne’s luxury suite in a hotel close to Hurley’s London home.

It was reported that on their second night together they were locked away in the same suite for more than 11 hours.

Warne, who has had an on-again, off-again relationship with former wife Simone, has been flirting with Hurley via Twitter for months.

On July 22, Hurley wrote to the father of three: ”Hello new Australian friend, how nice to have met you and in such sexy surroundings. I like the papers saying we are old friends”.

Warne’s serial philandering - at one time lurid text messages sent to an English nurse - prompted then Cricket Australia chief executive Malcolm Speed to strip him of the vice-captaincy in 2000 and replace him with Adam Gilchrist - a move that continues to this day to anger him.

The decision split Australia’s cricket hierarchy and drove a wedge between Gilchrist and Warne.

The champion leg-spinner was also shortlisted with Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting for the captaincy of the one-day side in 2002, but his off-field headlines meant he was never a realistic chance for the top job despite having one of the sharpest cricketing minds.

He is regarded as the best Test captain Australia never had, and his absence since retirement in 2007 has sparked a revolving door of spinners, with 10 used so far.

Calls for his Ashes return have grown since Australia was thrashed by an innings in Adelaide.

Dean Jones says Warne would return if guaranteed the captaincy for the next two years, while Australian coach Tim Nielsen has not ruled out the idea of Warne being recalled.

But selector Greg Chappell says he has been ”amused” by the calls and his panel ”haven’t really given a lot of thought about it”.

Australia squad: Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke (vice-captain), Shane Watson, Phil Hughes, Mike Hussey, Steve Smith, Brad Haddin, Michael Beer, Ryan Harris, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus.

Left-arm spinner Michael Beer was a surprise selection as Australia dropped Marcus North, Doug Bollinger and Xavier Doherty for the third Ashes Test.

Beer, who has made only five first-class appearances, is joined by leg-spinner Steve Smith in a squad of 12.

Pacemen Ben Hilfenhaus and Mitchell Johnson, who played at Brisbane but were dropped for the defeat by England in Adelaide, are back in the reckoning.

And left-handed opener Phil Hughes comes in for the injured Simon Katich.

Smith, viewed as a genuine all-rounder in some quarters, seems certain to start the Perth Test, which begins on 16 December, since no batsman has been picked to replace North, Australia’s misfiring number six from Brisbane and Adelaide.

Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin could be pushed up a place in the batting order, leaving Smith to bat at seven, and four pace bowlers to follow - or three of them plus Beer.

Australia will be desperate to win at Perth to get back on to level terms in a series they must win to regain the Ashes.

While Smith’s inclusion was predictable, Beer’s call-up is something of a shock.

He came into first-class cricket in his mid-20s and has only 16 first-class wickets at an average of 39.93, five of which came in England’s tour match against Western Australia.

He had won the backing of Australia’s greatest ever spinner Shane Warne, but it is not clear whether the selectors were swayed by his opinions.

Australia’s chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, said. “Michael is a left-arm orthodox spinner who has been very impressive at domestic level this year. He took wickets against England in the tour match earlier this summer and we expect he will bowl very well against the English on his home ground.”

Beer, 26, plied his trade in Melbourne club cricket until the end of last season, when he moved to Western Australia in an attempt to launch his domestic career.

One man who will definitely play at the Waca is Hughes, who made four and zero in his most recent first-class match but was always favourite to replace Katich. The veteran left-hander will miss the rest of the series with an Achilles tendon injury.

Smith has played two Tests, against Pakistan in England in July, when he was chosen as a leg-spinner in the absence of the injured Nathan Hauritz.

Hilditch said of his decision to drop North, following scores of 1, 26 and 22 in the first two Tests: “This is obviously disappointing for Marcus who has played some outstanding Test innings for Australia.

“But it was felt to be the right time to bring the exciting prospect Steve Smith into the Test team. Steve has already had success at international level and will also add to the bowling depth with his leg-spin bowling and dynamic fielding.”

Hilditch added: “Johnson and Hilfenhaus will be strongly considered for selection in Perth, where conditions will suit them.”

Former Australia fast bowler Geoff Lawson was critical of the selectors’ thinking, labelling Beer as “just a fledgling”.

Lawson told BBC Radio 5 live: “There are a lot of respectable spinners around in Australian cricket. Nathan Hauritz just had a respectable game in Sydney, and last week he played in Perth, took five wickets and bowled really well.

“Two leg-spinners, Jason Krejza and Bryce McGain, don’t seem to be in favour. There are a number of other decent bowlers but the national selectors don’t want to persevere with them.”

Looking at the return of Johnson and Hilfenhaus just one match after being dropped, Lawson added: “In his last six or seven Tests Johnson has been poor, but he wasn’t even allowed to play for Queensland against Western Australia in the match starting on Saturday.

“It is bizarre thinking from the coaching staff and selectors to put him back in the team when he has been bowling poorly for some time and has only had net work, whereas someone like Doug Bollinger has been Australia’s best bowler for the past 12 months.

“He had a poor game in Adelaide but so did quite a few others and they have discarded him on the evidence of one Test match. So it is quite confusing. There is a lack of consistency, a lack of clear process and you can only believe that come next Thursday in Perth there will still be a lot of confusion.”

There’s no love lost between Ian Chappell and Ian Botham. The Australian and the Englishman came to blows way back in 1977 in a Melbourne bar, and they were almost at it again on Monday. The duo went at each other in the car parking at the Adelaide Oval — the venue for the second Ashes Test. Had it not been for people around, who pulled them apart, things could have turned nasty.

According to reports, Chappell, 67, and Botham, 55, squared up to each after the end of play on Monday. They were in the parking area when “Chappell muttered something highly provocative as he went past”. A surprised Botham turned around to retort: “What did you say?”

And after Chappell made another incendiary remark, both were at each others’ throats before being quickly separated.

“They went for each other and it could have got very nasty if there hadn’t been people to keep them apart,” the daily quoted a source.

Clearly, the two aren’t in a mood to call truce anytime soon

Until England’s untimely collapse on the second morning of the First test v Pakistan, it looked like Morgan’s first test century was setting us up for a big total! Nonetheless it is great to see this young talent making it now in the test side and I personally hope we will be seeing a lot more of him in Australia.

We are pleased to announce that the England and Leicestershire wicket-keeper batsman Paul Nixon has informed us that he will is looking forward to joining Living WIth The Lions on tour in Australia in 2010. As an Official Travel Agent for the 3 Mobile Ashes Tour, Living WIth The Lions are able to offer a range of packages to all 5 of the test match series.

2010-11 Australian international summer of cricket

KFC Twenty20 International

• 12 January 2011 Australia v England Adelaide
• 14 January 2011 Australia v England Melbourne

Commonwealth Bank Series

• 16 January 2011 Australia v England Melbourne
• 21 January 2011 Australia v England Hobart
• 23 January 2011 Australia v England Sydney
• 26 January 2011 Australia v England Adelaide
• 30 January 2011 Australia v England Brisbane
• 2 February 2011 Australia v England Sydney
• 6 February 2011 Australia v England Perth

We are very pleased to announce that Living With The Lions Sports Travel has become one of the official licensed travel operators for the 3 mobile Ashes Tour to Australia in 2010/11. For more information, please see the cricket section on our website where we will soon be releasing travel packages which will of course include official tickets. With England performing so well in South Africa in this test match, excitement will only build over the next twelve months as the possibility of England retaining the Ashes and winning overseas increases.

Ricky Ponting is keen to continue leading Australia, despite his record of being the first captain, either English or Australian, to lose the Ashes twice. While others have lost more than one Ashes series, no-one other than him has lost twice where their side has entered both series as the holders.

It has also been over 100 years since an Aussie captain lost two away series against the old enemy, but despite this, perhaps because of it, Ponting is hoping to stay on in the job.

“I still think I’ve got a lot to offer the team, as a batsman and as a captain and as a leader,” said Ponting.

Many have questioned whether he could even be stood down from the job, questioning whether the side’s best batsman would want to continue playing under another captain. Ponting begs to differ.

“If it gets to the point I’m not the captain, my hunger and determination to keep playing are as good as ever.”

Ponting has come in for a lot of criticism from an Aussie media accustomed to victory, but having previously been lucky enough to captain a side chock full of all-time great players, he is now being forced to manage with more meagre resources.

Players like Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne are irreplaceable and as well as his bowlers have performed at different times, there is still a good deal of inconsistency from the bowlers. Mitchell Johnson, heralded as the best fast bowler in the world upon his arrival in England, is the prime example, folding under the spotlight in the first few Tests, before fighting back to show better form towards the end of this Ashes cricket tour.

These players will become more consistent with experience, which explains why Ponting is considering returning to England one more time.

It was a statistical quirk of the 2009 Ashes series that almost all of the top run-scorers were Australian and top three wicket-takers were also members of the touring side. The one exception was England’s captain, Andrew Strauss, who led by example in scoring more runs than any batsman on either side.

“When we were bad we were very bad and when we were good we managed to be good enough,” he said and that was really the story of the series. England won the crucial passages of play. One thinks back to Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar batting out 40 minutes in the first Test to save the game as being a prime example of this.

Australia captain, Ricky Ponting, seemed to agree, saying that when his side had had a bad session, it had inevitably been a very bad session. Several batting collapses put them in vulnerable positions throughout the series and conceding first innings deficits put them on the back foot in three of the matches.

The series also saw the final Test appearance of Andrew Flintoff, who will only play the shorter formats when he returns from his latest operation.

“This one is going to take some time to sink in,” he said. “Walking round the ground seeing family, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s a really special moment.”

A see-saw 2009 Ashes series was decided yesterday at the Brit Oval, with England taking the Ashes by two Tests to one.

Having beaten Australia at Lord’s for the first time in 75 years, England had given their lead away in the penultimate Test at Headingley, where they were beaten by an innings by an Australian side which seemed to have shaken off the uncharacteristic inconsistency that had plagued its tour.

Coming into the final Test, with England’s middle order looking fragile and Australia seemingly dominant once again, few would have given the home side much of a chance of emerging victorious. That feeling persisted after they made just 332 after winning the toss and choosing to bat.

The pitch had shown signs of very early deterioration as well as signs of taking spin on that first day, but the total still seemed a number of runs short at a ground where high scores are commonplace. When Australia reached 73-0, England supporters were pessimistic.

At that point, the entire series spun on its axis thanks to England’s new all-rounder, Stuart Broad. England’s talisman, Andrew Flintoff, might have been playing his final Test, but the spotlight belonged to the man who might prove to be his replacement. In a breathtaking spell of bowling, Broad destroyed Australia’s top order, taking 5-37 and from that point on, England were suddenly favourites.