NEW DELHI, March 4: The Australian cricket legend and “spin bowling king” Shane Warne, affectionately called “Warnie,” died from a “suspected heart attack” in Thailand on Friday, a statement issued by his management company said. He was 52.
A Fox Sports report stated that Warne’s management released a brief statement that he passed away in Koh Samui, Thailand, of a suspected heart attack. “Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived,” read a part of the statement. “The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course,” the report quoted from the statement.
Warne was the second highest wicket taker in the history of Test cricket, behind Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan, with 708 scalps to his name. He made his Test debut at the SCG in 1992 and immediately gained international fame with the ball of century, one to remember for ages for cricket fans around the world.
Warne was arguably the g
reatest leg-spinner of all time. Besides 708 Test match wickets, he also took 293 One-Day International wickets and made more than 300 appearances for Australia across all formats. Warne has also bagged more Ashes wickets than any other bowler in history. The leg-spinner took a total of 1001 wickets, the first-ever bowler to scale the peak of 1,000 international wickets. The right-hander was also handy with the bat as he scored 3,154 runs in his Test career. He amassed 1,018 runs in the 50-overs format.
Warne had retired from international cricket in 2007, but had played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008 and under his captaincy Rajasthan Royals had emerged the first winner of the IPL trophy. He had remained the team’s mentor till recently.
Prior to his death, Warne had last tweeted from his account on Friday as he condoled the death of former Australia cricketer Rodney Marsh.
“Sad to hear the news that Rod Marsh has passed. He was a legend of our great game & an inspiration to so many young boys & girls. Rod cared deeply about cricket & gave so much-especially to Australia & England players. Sending lots & lots of love to Ros & the family. RIP mate,” Warne had tweeted.
(Manas Dasgupta)