Shane Warne dies

More dreadful news from Australia which was already in cricket mourning for Rod Marsh. Now it's announced that a suspected heart attack has taken Shane Warne from us. He was only 52.

Jesus christ this is gutting

Bloody hell, that is awful.

Jeez, that's terrible news.

He was great entertainment both as cricketer and as a pundit.

That's a real shock. Rod Marsh was very sad but this is totally unexpected. The greatest bowler there's even been in my opinion

Felt old enough hearing about the deaths of Bob Willis a few months ago and Rod Marsh yesterday, players I remember watching as a kid, but Warne was essentially a contemporary and probably the most magical bowler I've ever seen. Absolutely devastating news.

Damn that's a real shock.

For my money the greatest spinner cricket has ever seen and a major reason why I fell in love with Cricket back in the mid 90's, he'll be missed.

My jaw dropped when I heard this a minute ago. No age at all.

A legend of the game who played it in such a mesmerising style.

As cricket fans we were truly spoilt to get Warne and Murali in the same era.

Totally out of the blue. He only tweeted his tribute to Rod Marsh last night. Horrifying.

He was a one man team in that 05 Ashes series. And I’ve not seen a cricketer who could alter a game via his mere presence and demeanour like Warne could.

RIP to the greatest.

The greatest spin bowler of all time and a great character to promote the game
RIP

Finding this hard to believe. At first i thought fake news but as it filtered through it has shocked the life out of me. Was saddened by Rod Marsh but now Warne. With other recent greats, including Dean Jones, there is some team forming up there.

RIP Shane, for me, the greatest spinner of all time.

I can't think of a cricketer you'd watch in the same way you'd watch Shane Warne. He was captivating, terrifying, probably just the right level of arrogance for the most part, and a skill level that was stunning, and stunning over and over again even though you knew he could do these things.

Competitive yet jovial and somehow casual, can imagine this one hitting a lot of Australians quite hard. And he bloody loved Australia, Australian sport, he was so proud of Melbourne's footprint on the sporting world and wasn't shy of saying so. Seemed genuinely enthused with teaching people about the sport, about spin bowling, about how they could improve.

Quite incomparable, for someone of my age. There are people who have faced untold amount of cricket balls who could not explain how he bowled some of the deliveries he did.

Utterly shocking and incomprehensible news. I'm in genuine disbelief.

Easily the greatest spinner of all time. I only saw the latter part of his test career, but I remember watching the 2005 and 2006/7 Ashes where the sheer aura he had on the field was magical. He was part of an Australian team that had Ponting, Hayden, McGrath, Langer, etc. but no doubting Warne was the main man on the field.

52, absolutely no age, especially in a sport like cricket where the vast majority of its professional participants seem to live to very long ages.

RIP Shane Warne
The Greatest Spinner I have seen in my times....one of the most competitive and tough Aussie....his never say die spirit most evident in his analysis of game situations as a commentator .
His commentary I quite enjoyed .....and the Greatest captain that world did not see

It would be interesting to know the causes that led to his cardiac arrest , eventually when they become known.

Along with Lara, Warne was the big influence in getting me into international cricket as a kid - as he was for millions upon millions of others of my generation.

More than just an all-time great player. His impact on and legacy / importance in the history of the game have been immeasurable.

In sports the word 'legend' gets thrown around way too easily, but it's more than justified in the case of Warne. In fact, it seems almost inadequate.

Rest in Peace.

Crikey this one came out of nowhere. Set the bar for leg spinners in the modern game, noones really come vaguely close. Its rare to have a sportsperson so clearly the best at their trade. Not many people can even make it as a test leggie at all.

His attitude, self confidence and swagger epitomises Australian sport at its most successful, even if its not exactly gentlemanly you cant argue with the results it bought.

KP_fan wrote:

It would be interesting to know the causes that led to his cardiac arrest , eventually when they become known.

Its pretty distasteful to speculate but he wasn't exactly the most athletic even in his playing days. Always struggled with his weight, fond of the drink and thrived on high stress living. Its a young age to go at and seemingly came from nowhere but we all probably know a man of similar age and lifestyle who has had heart issues.

A reminder to us all (cos lets face it pretty much all cricket fans fit into this bracket) that middle aged men need to consider their heart health.

Have watched cricket since 1958 and Shane Warne was, with Gary Sobers, the most dynamic cricketer I've ever seen.

I may be repeating what others, perhaps more eloquently, have said above. But with Warne in action you KNEW something was going to happen.

He was a tour de force, a one-man tornado. He will always be regarded as one of cricket's greatest players.

What an absolute shocker! RIP Shane Warne!
Is it the damn Long-Covid?
He left far too soon...

sirfredperry wrote:Have watched cricket since 1958 and Shane Warne was, with Gary Sobers, the most dynamic cricketer I've ever seen.

I may be repeating what others, perhaps more eloquently, have said above. But with Warne in action you KNEW something was going to happen.

He was a tour de force, a one-man tornado. He will always be regarded as one of cricket's greatest players.

And the one who bowled its greatest ball.

Gooseberry wrote:

KP_fan wrote:

It would be interesting to know the causes that led to his cardiac arrest , eventually when they become known.

Its pretty distasteful to speculate but he wasn't exactly the most athletic even in his playing days. Always struggled with his weight, fond of the drink and thrived on high stress living. Its a young age to go at and seemingly came from nowhere but we all probably know a man of similar age and lifestyle who has had heart issues.

A reminder to us all (cos lets face it pretty much all cricket fans fit into this bracket) that middle aged men need to consider their heart health.

We have  recently seen some high profile relatively  young stars from Bollywood and corporate die in the 40 to 50 age group of Cardiac arrest.
The common thread found was usage of weight loss / muscle building supplement /drugs  in addition to occasional to regular usage of narcotic drugs.

The high stressed life style is a given with many modern celebrities though if at all this was Warne's least stressful phase atleast from where we see it as outsiders .
And he looked leaner and fitter now then in his playing days.
It's sad and surreal that he is gone .....but more light on the causes will  benefit many others living  in the spot light

Totally shocked and unprepared to hear this news after the loss of Rod Marsh yesterday.

He transformed the modern cricket world with his mastery of leg spin bowling and showed such sublime skill, self-confidence along with a good dash of cheeky larrikinism. Like many have already mentioned above; you knew whenever he came on to have a bowl that something would happen and a wicket would not be far away. He must have known that too.

I'm still bewildered looking at the 'breaking news' across the screen.
After Don Bradman, I'd have him right up near the top as one of Australia's (if not the world's) sporting greats. RIP Warnie.

Woke up this morning to this shocking news. Has taken me all day to summon up the heart to come on here and comment as it has left me pretty numb. Far too soon for anyone ; understandably has left the cricket world in a similar state I think.

Heard someone on radio this morning say that while he might have sometimes left the TV to make a cup of tea during a Test Match , he could never do so while Warne was bowling : you just couldn't ever look away... Sums his game up I think.

Great is sort of an understatement . RIP Warnie...

Didn't realise this would hit me as hard as it has done - a monumental loss to the world of cricket. He was, and still is, one of the games most prominent people and one of the games biggest fans/advocates. Sure there would be often we'd get annoyed by his commentary (!!) but from him it was never coming from a place of apathy, it was just his different yet fully invested views on the game, and you could never doubt how much he just loved the game of cricket right till the end.
And while his commentary could leave some of us eye rolling on general state of the game, I am yet to hear anybody speak with the level of insight that Warne could on spin bowling. You'd always learn something when he was on comms and the spinner was on, his cricketing mind in that sense was truly unparalleled.

Obviously one of, if not the best bowler of all time - what he did in the 2005 Ashes in particular is rather ridiculous as others have already pointed out. But, I think one of the best blokes the game has seen...sure he had some well documented "off-field charades" so to speak, but I don't think I've read about anybody who said he wouldn't give up time to have a photo, sign an autograph or even give a few throw downs no matter the situation. My mate always tells me how he met him at The Oval while he was on break from a Sky comms stint (think it was 09 Ashes test) and that the producer had to come and get him for his next stint, because he was just chatting and taking photos with all the folk coming to see him. There are almost too many other stories to read on social media and in the papers today, which tells you all you need to know about the man

What a great great shame that he has left us, the game will miss him massively.

The biggest compliment I could pay to Warne is that while he's the games greatest ever bowler he could have done so much more. He had to compete with some world class Aussie bowlers who in turn had to compete with him.

He played alongside the equally great Glenn Mcgrath 104 times and still took over 700 wickets. We will never see a bowling pair like it again, the torment they put us through was a pleasure to watch.

My abiding memory of Warne will be seeing him congratulate Pietersen at the Oval in 2005. The ashes had been lost but he still had the class to put friendship first.

Aussie leg spinner Alana King lured Tammy down and ripped one past her outside edge to have her stumped in the WC game earlier. Which he she celebrated by immediately tapping her black armband. Not sure particularly why, but I found it really, really lovely.

https://twitter.com/henrymoeranbbc/status/1500013005345783813?s=21

It's a bit like Kobe Bryant, where you just don't expect certain people to actually die. I'm not sure there's a leg spinner in all ghe globe, no matter the country, who bowled a ball out the back of the hand that wasn't called the next Warne. He was an astonishing level of iconic, and the cricket World really is poorer for his departure. Vale Warney. You will be missed. Even on commentary.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Didn't realise this would hit me as hard as it has done - a monumental loss to the world of cricket. He was, and still is, one of the games most prominent people and one of the games biggest fans/advocates. Sure there would be often we'd get annoyed by his commentary (!!) but from him it was never coming from a place of apathy, it was just his different yet fully invested views on the game, and you could never doubt how much he just loved the game of cricket right till the end.
And while his commentary could leave some of us eye rolling on general state of the game, I am yet to hear anybody speak with the level of insight that Warne could on spin bowling. You'd always learn something when he was on comms and the spinner was on, his cricketing mind in that sense was truly unparalleled.

Obviously one of, if not the best bowler of all time - what he did in the 2005 Ashes in particular is rather ridiculous as others have already pointed out. But, I think one of the best blokes the game has seen...sure he had some well documented "off-field charades" so to speak, but I don't think I've read about anybody who said he wouldn't give up time to have a photo, sign an autograph or even give a few throw downs no matter the situation. My mate always tells me how he met him at The Oval while he was on break from a Sky comms stint (think it was 09 Ashes test) and that the producer had to come and get him for his next stint, because he was just chatting and taking photos with all the folk coming to see him. There are almost too many other stories to read on social media and in the papers today, which tells you all you need to know about the man

What a great great shame that he has left us, the game will miss him massively.

Following on from Olly's second para, Surrey's Richard Spiller concluded his own tribute, thus:
''And a final memory is when he played for Hampshire at Whitgift School, being confronted by a long line of autograph hunters. Warne pulled up a chair and made sure every single child went home satisfied.
That's the action of a true legend.''

Saw the memorial at the MCG and it shocked me again that he'd died.

There's a word over there, a word I generally scoff at because I'm a blooming Englishman, but a good one for Warne and the character he was. Mateship.