THE Maidstone-based cricket club Lashings are confident of signing another world great after making a brazen bid to sign banned Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne.

The Aussie spin-wizard, who was sent home from the World Cup last month after failing a drugs test, could now be on his way to Kent's county town.

Warne's positive B sample showed traces of an outlawed diuretic and led to a 12-month first-class ban by Cricket Australia, formerly the Australian Cricket Board, and the end of plans to skipper Hampshire in this year’s county championship.

However Lashings chairman David Folb, who made a similarly audacious bid to sign the late South African Test skipper Hansie Cronje, has since approached Warne over a possible move to Maidstone.

“I’m not in the habit of going public on these sort of things if they are not likely to come off, so I can confirm that I have gone after Shane,” he said.

“I contacted my solicitor in Australia and he approached Shane’s brother Jason, who also happens to be his agent. We have made him an offer on behalf of Lashings and heard back via email from Jason Warne.

“They believe Shane is free to play non first-class matches, charity games and help with development work so, at this stage, we’re 75 per cent certain we will see him bowling on Kent cricket pitches later this summer.”

While acknowledging Warne’s misdemeanour, Mr Folb believes the advantages of having arguably the greatest ever leg-spinner promoting cricket in the Garden of England is too good an opportunity to miss.

“We are aware of the delicate position he is in with regard to world cricket and understand the implications of the ban,” he added.“He will serve his ban from international cricket and this club will never condone the misuse of drugs in any walk of life let alone cricket.

“However his contribution to world cricket outweighs by some margin the more recent misdemeanour and this is the reason behind our approach."