Ed Sheeran shares best Shane Warne moment on The Project

Ed Sheeran shared his favourite moments with the cricket legend on The Project ahead of the cricket legend’s state funeral.

Ed Sheeran revealed the first time he met Shane Warne in an emotional tribute during Wednesday night’s episode of The Project.

The British musician, who has just announced his 2023 Australian tour, described the cricket legend as “such a lovely person inside and out”.

“The heart of that bloke was so big.”

“The heart of that bloke was so big,” Shane Warne with Ed Sheeran. Picture: Instagram

The 31-year-old’s emotional appearance comes almost two weeks after Warne was found dead at the age of 52 in his Thai Villa in Koh Samui after suffering a heart attack.

Host Carrie Bickmore was surprised the two knew each other, asking how they had become so close.

“We met in 2014 when I was doing the Logies. He was staying in the hotel next to me,” Sheeran said.

He revealed that Warne had taken him and some friends to Club 23 in Melbourne’s Southbank. Warne had owned the club until its closure in 2019.

“He took me and my friends there, and that was like the first time I’d hung out with him.”

Shane Warne and Ed Sheeran had become good friends after meeting in Melbourne in 2014. Picture: Instagram

But the moment that really stood out for the Bad Habits singer was when Warne took him to the cricket in London.

“He used to do some really amazing things. I’ve got some friends that are huge into cricket, and he just offered one day like, ‘Do you want me to take them to the nets at Lord’s?’” Warne had even played against the singer’s dad in 2015, when Sheeran was in Australia for his stadium tour.

“He took me in the nets at the MCG. He was bowling against my dad, and my dad was doing the hits and everything,” he reminisced to Bickmore.

“Then I sort of whispered to him, ‘Give him one proper Shane Warne ball’, man, they fly don’t they! They really fly.”

Warne is regarded as one of the best cricketers in history, claiming 708 test wickets at 24.41 in 145 matches between 1992 and 2007. No Australian has taken more international wickets.

In 2013 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and was named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century, alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir Vivian Richards.

Warne is regarded as one of the best cricketers in history, claiming 708 test wickets at 24.41 in 145 matches between 1992 and 2007. Photo by Philip Brown/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images

Warne’s body arrived in Australia from Thailand on Thursday with a private memorial expected to be held on March 20. A state funeral will be held on March 30 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to be attended by tens of thousands of fans.