Shane Warne death: Fox Sports talent open up what it was like working in the media with Aussie legend

His smoking caused plenty of angst and he was constantly taking naps, but in the commentary box Shane Warne was the consummate professional and very much in demand.

Shane Warne slipped into the curator’s hut at Adelaide Oval last year for a cigarette … and the entire venue almost went up in smoke.

“We got a call saying, ‘It’s really dangerous – he can’t smoke in there’,” Fox Cricket boss Matt Weiss told News Corp.

“He said, ‘But I’ve been smoking here for 10 years’. What he didn’t realise was it was full of petrol and pesticides.

Shane Warne loved nothing more than a kip and a smoke, but was the consumate professional in the commentary box.

“He could’ve blown the joint up. So we’d have this constant ring-a-ring-a-rosie on where he could smoke, because we had to know where he was.

“At every ground in Australia, Cricket Australia would usually find him an area that he could duck out of the commentary box and have a smoke so he didn’t have to go miles out of the ground.

“There’d be a little stairwell or something that was safe, but over years that’s got harder and harder to do.

“At the end of a day you’d go down a stairwell to leave the ground and there’d be 15 butts and you’d think, ‘Warnie’s been here’.”

When Prime Minister Scott Morrison wandered into the commentary box at a recent SCG Test, Warnie was snoring under a desk.

Host Mark Howard realised it was a serious visit when security dogs were brought through to sniff the place out.

“The Prime Minister’s coming in and I look over and Warnie’s legs are hanging out from under the desk, he’s asleep face down,” Weiss said.

“Howie kicked him and said, ‘Mate, you might want to get up’.”

Warne’s power naps were famous at Fox.

Shane Warne launches BBL '09 on Fox Cricket.

“He loved a kip – don’t worry,” Fox Cricket host Brendon Julian told News Corp.

“He could sleep anywhere, anytime in the smallest corner. That’s a rare feat as well.”

Mike Hussey once recounted how Warne was the king at kipping in between shifts.

“He’ll wake up, get out from underneath the table and straight back into it,” Hussey said.

“He’ll say, ‘I’ve just been watching this closely and I’ve noticed that he’s just getting a little bit of shape away’.

“Quite often he’s been exactly right without having watched a ball.

“He’s seeing it in his sleep.”

But make no mistake. The spin king had media gigs all around the world because he was as professional as they came.

“You don’t just get Shane Warne the commentator on the day,” Weiss said.

Warnie was part of the Channel Nine commentary team ...

... before the move to Fox Sports.

“You get Shane Warne the personality – the whole package – to promote your channel, to promote the game.

“He does everything possible to help you. He’s intensely loyal and generous with his time.

“I’ve never known once for Shane to miss a plane, I’ve never known him to be late – ever.

“Regardless of what time he got back to his hotel that morning, he’d be there at 7.30am or whatever time his call time was.

“Bit of make-up and he’s away. He’d be in the meeting with suggestions and he’d thought about it overnight and what we should do and how to get batsmen out.

“His professionalism is completely unquestioned the whole time. He’s known as the party boy and all that, but I think people underestimate why he was so good in the media was that he was very professional at it.”

What was it like sharing a commentary booth with the great man?

“It was always good fun … if you could get a word in,” Fox Cricket colleague Mark Waugh told News Corp.

Before an Ashes Test last summer, Waugh remembers Weiss giving them feedback before the start of play.

Warnie the commentator was ‘fearless’.

“Weissy would go, ‘Great stuff yesterday boys, great commentary, plenty of energy. The TV ratings were great, but can we let the pitches breathe a bit today, maybe not quite talk as much when we’re commentating’

“Then Warnie would get on the first shift and he would not come up for air for the first half hour.

“It was hilarious.

“He had strong opinions and backed them up.

“He’s very loyal, if he liked a player he’d ram it down your throat endlessly and other players he wasn’t so keen on.”

Weiss described Warne as “fearless” and that’s what Julian admired most.

“If one of his mates is playing and he sees something that he doesn’t agree with, then he calls it out,” Julian said.

“Not everyone does that. He’s even done it in India in the IPL. And he’s done it against India, where most don’t do that because they’re worried about the ramifications.

“He called out, which I thought was a big thing, something on Virat Kohli’s captaincy and then there was one where Ashwin did the Mankad in an IPL game and he called it out on Twitter.

“I take my hat off to that.”

Warne tweeted after Ashwin’s moment of controversy: “So disappointed in @ashwinravi99 as a Captain & as a person. All captains sign the #IPL wall & agree to play in the spirit of the game. RA had no intention of delivering the ball - so it should have been called a dead ball. Over to u BCCI - this a not a good look for the #IPL”.

Whack. Damien Fleming rarely heard Warne’s work behind the microphone because he was usually calling for the opposition.

One moment he does remember was when Warne, mic’d up in a Big Bash game, told Fox Cricket how he was going to get Brendon McCullum (Brisbane Heat) out … and executed it perfectly.

“I do remember that because I was commentating the game, and he was doing a better job from the field,” Fleming said.

Julian had the job of asking Warne what was coming. The king foreshadowed a sweep shot and said: “I might try to slide one in there – fast”.

McCullum swept, missed it and was bowled.

“Well, you called it!” Julian said on the night.

It was cutting-edge to have a player mic’d up and no bowler has done it since.

Warnie in a priceless photo with former Australian captain Bill Lawry.

“There was a bit of trepidation about it because it hadn’t been done before, and it was a serious game,” Julian said.

“I don’t think anyone’s gone in a proper game, ‘I’m gonna do this, this, this’ and then execute it.

“He set McCullum up right throughout the whole over.

“It looked so natural, didn’t it?

“There were very few sportsmen around the world that can predict it, do it and execute it – plus have a microphone in.

“I didn’t even need to commentate, that’s how easy it was for me. I just had to say, ‘Hello, good luck, what are you doing?’

“He owned the game when he had the ball in his hand.”

Waugh first met Warne over a beer after a Sheffield Shield match.

“I hadn’t really heard of him and he charged into the dressing room with a smoke hanging out of his mouth and a packet of cards and was showing us some card tricks,” Waugh said.

“I think he might’ve even changed the music on the music box.”

The last time they were together was at the MCG last month, commentating a T20 match between Australia and Sri Lanka.

“We were walking back from the middle of the MCG up to the commentary box and you walk through the carpark underneath.

“Warnie goes, ‘Come and have a look at my new car’ and showed me this Mercedes Benz that was worth about $350,000.”

In between the kid from Upper Ferntree Gully became one of the most generous men Weiss has known.

After the 2018-19 BBL final at Marvel Stadium, where Warne’s Stars choked against the Renegades, he was so excited by the finish that an impromptu party was thrown at his Brighton home.

“He basically invited 45 crew back to his house for a party,” Weiss said.

“Half were freelancers he wouldn’t know very well. With a few phone calls in the car on the way he got caterers in.

“Next thing Michael Gudinski arrived and footballers arrived and Nick Williams (Lloyd’s son) and Nicky Whelan the actor.

“For the crew – cameramen and floor managers – they all had this amazing night in Warnie’s house.

“He has a nightclub in his house, and he paid for the whole thing. It would’ve been a ridiculous amount of money.

“Full bar, he’s behind the bar, he’s DJing the music, he’s serving up copious amounts of shots.”

Then, there was the 15-minute walk from Optus Stadium to Crown Hotel in Perth after another 12-hour day commentating in 35-degree heat.

Warne stopped in the park to pick apart a kid’s bowling action with a one-on-one tutorial that the youngster will remember forever.

“That was the generosity of the guy,” Weiss said.

Originally published as Shane Warne death: Fox Sports talent open up what it was like working in the media with Aussie legend