Warne was watching cricket, about to go to dinner before collapsing

Shane 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.

The 52-year-old’s long-time manager told the Herald and The Age Warne had not been drinking before he was found by his friend Andrew Neophitou, an executive producer on his recently released documentary, who had gone to Warne’s Thailand hotel room before a planned dinner.

He was found unconscious with the historic first Test match between Australia and Pakistan playing on the television. The leg-spinner was holidaying at a resort in Koh Samui as part of a rare extended holiday before travelling to the UK to commentate the English summer of cricket.

“They were meant to meet some people at 5pm. Neo was next door, he’s always on time,” Warne’s long-time manager James Erskine said.

“He realised he wasn’t well. He tried to give mouth-to-mouth, tried to resuscitate him, he had no heartbeat, the ambulance came 20 minutes later and an hour and a bit later he was pronounced dead [at the Thai International Hospital].”

Warne was last seen about two hours earlier, according to Erskine. “He was on holiday, having a lie down, siesta, he hadn’t been drinking, he’d been on this diet to lose weight,” he said.

“He didn’t drink much. Everyone thinks he’s a big boozer but he’s not a big boozer at all. I sent him a crate of wine, 10 years later it’s still there. He doesn’t drink, never took drugs, ever. He hated drugs so nothing untoward.

“He was going to do the things he likes doing. He was going to play in one or two poker competitions, play a lot of golf, be with his kids, that was about it; [to] have time to himself.”

Erskine said the player-turned-commentator’s children Brooke, Summer and Jackson were “shattered” by the news of their father’s death. Warne’s father, Keith, visited his grandchildren in the early hours of Saturday morning to comfort them after the news broke.

Tributes to Warne came from global figures in sports, politics and entertainment. The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger called the Australian the “greatest spin bowler ever” while musician Ed Sheeran said he would “bloody miss” his “amazing friend”. The front-page of British tabloid The Daily Star lauded “THE GREATEST” while the back pages of Britain’s Guardian called Warne “one of the greatest cricketers of all time, who matched his almost preternatural genius with a carefree air of a kid at play”.

In a statement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Warne was “one of only a few that could approach the extraordinary achievements of the great Don Bradman.”

“But Shane was more than this to Australians. Shane was one of our nation’s greatest characters. His humour, his passion, his irreverence, his approachability ensured he was loved by all. Australians loved him. We all did,” Mr Morrison said.

The Victorian government announced the MCG’s Great Southern Stand would be renamed the S.K. Warne Stand after the most successful leg-spinner of all-time who took 708 Test wickets in a 145-Test career. Warne took his famous 700th wicket at the MCG in front of his home fans, having grown up in bayside Melbourne.

“The S.K. Warne Stand will be a permanent tribute to an amazing Victorian,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews wrote on Twitter, also offering Warne’s family a state funeral.

The often controversial cricketer — who was almost as well-known for his relationships and partying as he was for his sporting achievements — revolutionised the art of spin bowling and inspired a generation of cricketers.

Perhaps Warne’s finest — and most memorable moment — was his ‘ball of the century’; a leg-spin ball that spun at a significant angle before smashing into the stumps behind bamboozled England batsman Mike Gatting with the spinner’s first ball in Test cricket on English soil.

He is second to Muttiah Muralitharan on the all-time wickets tally in Test cricket. In 2000, Warne was voted by Wisden as one of the five greatest cricketers of the 20th century.

Two of Warne’s teammates in a Test team that dominated world cricket, captain Ricky Ponting and bowler Glenn McGrath, expressed their grief on Saturday afternoon.

Batting legend Ponting said he met Warne at a cricket academy when Ponting was 15, where Warne gave him his nickname of “Punter”. “Hard to put this into words,” Ponting wrote on Twitter.

“The greatest bowler I ever played with or against. RIP King.”

McGrath said Warne had a special ability to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on the cricket field, and said he carried this attitude off the field.

“There seemed to be never a dull moment ... Rest In Peace my good mate, there’ll never again be anyone like you,” McGrath wrote.

Australian batsman Steve Smith posted on his Instagram story: “Hard to fathom that we’ve lost 2 Australian legends within 24 hours. My thoughts are with the family. RIP Shane.”

Pakistan great Shoaib Akhtar said: “I’ve just heard [the] devastating news, shocking news, one of the greats of the game, Shane Warne, has passed away. I am not breaking this news, but I am just deeply saddened to learn that he is no more with us. One of the best human beings I ever came across.”

In an office adjoining the foyer of the luxury Samujana Villas, the devastation was written all over the faces of Shane Warne’s friends on Saturday. Less than 24 hours before, they had fought in vain to try and save their friend’s life. On Saturday they were left with the heartbreaking task of calling Warne’s loved ones.

Present in Koh Samui with Neophitou were Gareth Edwards, who runs Warne’s website, and resort director John Dopere, who was also a friend of Warne’s. All three declined to comment to the Herald and The Age at the resort.

While Warne’s death was not being treated as suspicious, the officer in charge of the investigation, Lieutenant Colonel Chatchawin Narkmusik, said his friends were due to speak to police further on Saturday afternoon.

Australia’s ambassador to Thailand, Allan McKinnon, was also understood to be on his way from Bangkok to Koh Samui, with the Australian government to help organise the repatriation of Warne’s body to Australia for a state funeral. His body was then transferred to the morgue at the government-operated Koh Samui Hospital on the west side of the island.

The resort, which Warne and his fellow travellers had checked into after arriving in Thailand on Thursday, was guarded by security by late on Saturday morning.

Erskine, said Warne had been due to fly out of the south-east Asian nation early next week after staying on Koh Samui for five days.

The Australian and England women’s cricket teams honoured Warne with a moment of silence before a match in New Zealand on Saturday, as cricket fans from across Victoria visited the statue of Warne outside the MCG.

Harry Morrow left a can of VB, a meat pie and a packet of cigarettes at Warne’s feet on Saturday, in memory of the man he said “was Australian cricket”. Spending a lot of time in the UK as a kid, Mr Morrow’s fondest memories were of watching Warne “rip the English cricket team to shreds”.

“There was a sort of smug satisfaction watching him come out — you’d be like ‘here’s the secret weapon, he’s gonna clean ’em up’, and he always did,” he said.

Former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy said he was upset by the death but unsurprised his former teammate died young. Warne’s weight fluctuated during his career; he said in 2019 he had dropped 14 kilograms after weighing about 98 kilograms. Just five days ago, Warne posted on Instagram that he had recently begun a new diet, which he called “operation shred”, and hoped to “get back to … shape”.

“An early passing didn’t surprise me for Warnie,” Healy told Nine’s Today show. “He didn’t look after his body that well. He yo-yoed up and down.

“He didn’t put much sunscreen on. I thought it would have become skin issues for him over time, but not at 52. And he would have been full of beans right to the end, I bet.”

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