Shane Warne memorial watched around the world by cricketing fans

The televised tribute to the late cricketing legend Shane Warne was viewed by sporting fans across the globe.

The Shane Warne Memorial at the MCG which featured Chris Martin singing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie.

The sporting world farewelled one of cricket’s greatest-ever players, Shane Warne, in a star-studded line-up to pay tribute to an Aussie hero and larrikin.

The memorial was held at the MCG on Wednesday night and was watched by millions of people internationally and included performances by some of the world’s biggest names in music including Ed Sheeran and Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

Warne’s three children – Brooke, Jackson and Summer – paid tribute to their late father who died of a heart attack at age 52 on March 4 in Thailand.

Figures released by TV ratings company OzTAM on Thursday showed Channel 7’s broadcast of the event drew 829,000 viewers across the five major capital cities and was the third highest ratings program on Wednesday.

The memorial, which started at 7pm AEDT also aired on rival network Nine and drew 403,000 viewers across the five major cities – the broadcast aired on the main channel in Melbourne and on 9GEM across the rest of the country.

The ABC’s broadcast of the event drew 163,000 viewers across the five major cities and Ten drew 161,000 viewers.

The memorial was also aired on Sky News Australia and drew 81,000 viewers, Fox Cricket (64,000 viewers) and Fox Footy (59,000 viewers).

Melbourne’s 3AW radio broadcaster Neil Mitchell described the event on Thursday morning as a “world-class event with Melbourne stamped all over it and Eddie (McGuire) stamped all over it and Shane Warne stamped all over it”.

“Last night for me captured the essence of Shane Warne, that’s a tough thing to do,” he said.

McGuire’s company, Jam TV productions, was behind the production of the memorial and Warne’s close friend and former AFL legend Sam Newman, was among those to attend the sporting arena and pay tribute on stage to his late golfing partner.

“Yesterday was surreal, as a matter of fact, to think that a young man from Black Rock or Brighton could just engender that emotion around the world is absolutely beyond belief and is a great testament to his family and him,” Newman said on Mitchell’s 3AW mornings program.

But Newman did note, he “wondered” where his former fiancee was Liz Hurley who was absent from the production held in Melbourne.

Among those in attendance included Prime Minister Scott Morrison, former PM John Howard, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, former cricketers Michael Clarke, David Boon, Mark Taylor, Andrew Symonds, Glenn McGrath and Allan Border.

Music tributes were played at the event by superstars including Elton John, Sheeran, Martin and Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue also gave a video address of her fond memories of Warne.