Shane Warne dead at 52: Australian cricketer dies of suspected heart attack, shocking sports world

That concludes our live coverage on a momentous day in Australian sport and a sad day for Australia. Shane Warne’s shock death has clearly touched many people here and around the world.

We will continue to monitor events and bring you significant updates tonight through our live coverage of the Australian team in Pakistan which you can read here. That blog will run until midnight or a bit afterwards.

Here’s a summary of some of the day’s key moments:

• Warne was watching the cricket before meeting friends for dinner when he suffered a suspected heart attack, prompting his business manager to perform about 20 minutes of CPR to save the generational cricketer. Read the latest news here;
• The Victorian government announced that it would look to rename the MCG’s Great Southern Stand in Warne’s honour;
• Fans leaving tributes at the MCG have joined with our readers to share their memories of Warne both watching him play or when they have met him in their daily lives;
• There were also tributes from around the world and great reflections in their own words from cricketers Mark Taylor and Jeff Lawson;
• Take a look at Dan Brettig’s piece here on what made him such a formidable bowler;
• Several of our best writers and contributors have tried to make sense of the news and shared their memories and insights about the champion spinner including Tony Wright , Martin Blake, Peter Fitzsimons, Neil McMahon, Malcolm Conn and Malcolm Knox; 
• Warne’s life was littered with highs and lows, remember them here using our visual timeline here.

Thanks again for joining us on a sad day.

The British always had a soft spot for Shane Warne despite the torment he dished out to their national team and the delight he took in inflicting it.

The response from the press is certainly something to behold and you can get a taste of it in the image below.

British front pages of cricketer Shane Warne’s deathCredit: Internet

“I was asking people if it was true or if it was fake news,” Muttiah Muralitharan told Fox Cricket.

“It was shocking. He’s very young, 52 years, and he’s a legend. A big, big miss for world cricket. The world and the cricket fraternity are going to miss him. Very sad and I don’t have words to say.

“I was two or three years younger than him, so I was always going to play a little bit longer and I always had that advantage. If he’d have played the same as me for both our careers, he would have got more [wickets] than me. I enjoyed that battle, our performance goes up because we’re thinking that ‘we want to beat his record’.

“That was a great help from him and a gesture from him [after the Boxing Day Tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004]. When I met him for that Tsunami match in Melbourne, I asked whether he wanted to come to Sri Lanka and help.

“He took it very seriously and he came and helped a lot, and our foundation was very happy to bring him. Galle was a ground that was close to his heart.”

Kath and Kim actor Magda Szubanski has penned an ode to Shane Warne, who she became close to when he made a guest appearance on the show in 2007.

In the fourth season of the show, Szubanski’s sport-obsessed character Sharon Strzelecki gets engaged to a Shane Warne impersonator named Wayne (played by Warne).

Ms Szubanski took to Twitter a short time ago reflecting on the sad news, and her memories with Warne while filming the show.

Here’s what she had to say:

Woke in the middle of the night to terrible, terrible news that Shane Warne had died. I’m in utter shock.

Inconceivable that a life crammed with so much genius and larrikin charm could be snuffed out so suddenly and so soon.

When we filmed these immortal scenes Warnie proved that he was not just a great sportsman but also a great sport. He played along with our shenanigans and we had loads of fun. He was a great pasher!

In between takes we chatted and I totally fell under the spell of the famed Warnie charm: he was thoughtful and very sweet.

He was born not far from where I lived and so much of him was typical, Melbourne outer suburban boy. Except, of course, that he was blessed by the gods of cricket. My god. So blessed. But also dedicated and hard working.

He taught me - or rather Sharon - how to do the flipper and recounted how he would practice that spin hundreds of times a day until he could propel a cricket ball one metre straight up into the air just by clicking his fingers. His fingers were like small tree trunks.

But mostly I remember how he spoke with such great love and pride of his beautiful kids.

This is a shocking loss for our nation and for the cricketing world. And poor Sharon has lost her hero and the love of her life.

But right now my heart is with his family and friends - and most especially his beautiful children Jackson, Summer and Brooke he loved so very, very much. RIP Warnie. Sending love to you and Rod Marsh up there in cricket heaven.

Warne’s manager James Erskine has recalled how the leg-spin great agreed to take a phone call from a young Australian fan he had met while having a quiet beer in Positano in Italy.

The boy called Oscar was eight-years-old and knew every detail of Warne’s career, Erskine said.

Credit: Matt Golding

“Shane Warne was his idol,” Erskine said. “I asked ‘would you like to speak to Shane Warne?’ He said: ‘I’d love to’.”

“He [Warne] answered the phone. I said: ‘I’ve got one of your fans in Positano’. So this little chap, who was very confident, told him he was a leg-spinner, but he had this unbelievable ability to remember facts and figures.

“He was one of these almanacs who knew everything. Warnie said: “get your father to film you bowling from the front and side on, I’ll critique you and when you do it give me a call back. That’s the sort of bloke he was.”

The Indian cricket team has observed a minute silence before the start of play on Day 2 of the first Test against Sri Lanka to pay respect for both Rodney Marsh and Shane Warne.

The players, who all wore black armbands today, also paid tribute to Warne in a number of videos posted to their Facebook page a short time ago.

Captain Rohit Sharma said he was “absolutely devastated” to hear the news about Warne, saying he “inspired [a] whole new generation of cricketers”.

”He did wonders with the ball, we all know about that,” he said.

Virat Kohli said Warne lived life “king-size” and brought a persona and charisma to the game on and off the field.

“[I’m] just very grateful to have known him and for me the greatest spinner to have ever played the game,” he said.

“Passing at the age of 52 is is something which is totally unexpected - went far too early.”

Both players made heartfelt messages of condolence to Mr Warne’s family

It was a tough day yesterday for the Australian cricketers followed by a very difficult night.

Now they are back on the field in Rawalpindi taking on Pakistan. Both sides observed a moment’s silence before play recognising not just the passing of legend Shane Warne but also the victims of a bombing in Peshawar which left more than 30 dead.

On the field the Australians will be desperate for wickets after Pakistan racked up 245 for the loss of a solitary wicket.

You can follow the action live in our match blog here.

The Australian Test team arrived at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium at 8:57am, a little under under 14 hours after the news broke of Warne’s death.

Some players were awake early. They have been in Pakistan for nearly a week, so it couldn’t have been a jet lag issue.

Marnus Labuschagne tweeted at 5:29am that he was “shocked and saddened” by the news. Nathan Lyon was the first player onto the ground. He walked to the middle by himself.

Commentator Neroli Meadows, during an interview on the ground with Pat Cummins, described Lyon as “devastated” when he walked past.

The Australian captain spoke briefly before play, which begins in 20 minutes. There will be a minute’s silence and black armbands worn by the team.

“It’s just a really tough time with both Rod and Shane [passing],” Cummins said. “We only heard yesterday just as we were leaving the ground yesterday. Everyone works through it differently. Everyone knew Shane but some people knew him better than others.

“I probably took him for granted when I was really young. It probably wasn’t until his last couple of years when I was 10, 11, 12 years old and really appreciated just what a giant of the game he was. I probably started to learn and appreciate the art of spin bowling and his showmanship and all those things he bought to Australia.

“That’s probably my longest lasting memories and in recent years just playing across the world you just realise just that it wasn’t only Aussies who felt that. It was in all corners.”

If you’re looking for a way to relive some of Shane Warne’s great moments but also gain a greater understanding of him as a person, then a documentary that landed on Amazon Prime late in January is a good option for the couch tonight.

Shane is a 95-minute run-through of Warne’s life from his childhood and football dreams to his cricketing success and personal challenges.

Our reviewer Jake Wilson gave the documentary three stars when he reviewed it earlier this year.

Here’s a taste of what he wrote:

Two sides of Warne emerge especially strongly. First, the ruthless competitor, ever alert to his opponents’ weak spots, and a master not just of leg spin bowling but of the not unrelated art of sledging, or what Gideon Haigh (not interviewed here, alas) calls ‘kidology’.

Warne himself calls it ‘sportsmanship’, which is the opposite of what some would mean by that term – and allows that on occasion he may have taken it too far. But mostly he’s unrepentant if not outright boastful about his knack for mind games: his reminiscent smirk, which hovers between cheeky and infuriating, almost lets you believe his claim that playing against him was a difficult kind of fun.

Also emphasised is Warne the wayward but nonetheless devoted dad. If there’s a scene here that might be hard for Warne himself to watch, it’s where his now adult daughter Brooke recalls (and visibly relives) the very public revelation of her father’s infidelities. But when all three of his kids get together to mock his foibles (‘He snores for Australia’) there’s no doubt whatever of the love coming through.

The Australian Professional Poker community is grieving the death of Shane Warne, with pro Australian player Tony Hachem paying tribute to his close friend of over 20 years.

“He was my brother, he was my daughter’s godfather. We loved him, I’m shattered,” said a tearful Mr Hachem, who would have been on holiday in Thailand with Warne if it had not been for family commitments.

“He invited me to go with him.”

Mr Hachem was gathered on Saturday with some of Warne’s closest poker player friends in Melbourne including his brother and fellow professional poker player Joe Hachem.

“He just enjoyed the professional competition of poker and he loves his home games with [us] his close friends,” said Mr Hachem,

“We’re all lost, we’re all dumbfounded at the moment - we can’t believe what’s happened.”

Poker was an important part of Warne’s life. On his website he dedicated many words to his love of the game and its similarities to cricket.

“Each are long and gruelling events that can be broken down into many smaller contests,” he wrote.

“In cricket, I’m focusing ball-by-ball, over-by-over, session-by-session, one batsman at a time. In poker, you can only play one hand at a time, one opponent at a time. If you can win more than your fair share of the smaller contests, over time, they will add up to success in both endeavours. Patience is the key.”

Warne was once signed as a professional player with 888poker and won more than $100,000 in his career.

Mr Hachem said aside from poker and cricket he would remember Warne as an incredibly loyal friend, and father and philanthropist.

“What attracted us to Warney was not only his love for his kids, but for all kids in general,” he said.