Shane Warne larger than life, human to the core

Larger than life when it was his, in death Shane Warne’s legend has gone to another level. Irreplaceable and individual in every sense.

Shane Warne in the dressing room at The Oval in London after taking his 400th Test wicket in 2001. Picture: Brett Costello.

Every day dawns with further confirmation there was nobody like Shane Warne and there is no end to the impact of his personality and complete dominance of cricket.

Larger than life when it was his, in death his legend has gone to another level. Irreplaceable and individual in every sense.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on Sunday that Warne would receive a state funeral, but his reputation ensures the event will be, fittingly, as large as anything witnessed in this country.

Phillip Hughes’s funeral in 2014 stopped the town of Macksville, attracting his grieving team mates and misty eyed-focus of the nation; Don Bradman’s in 2001 was a historic event.

And back in 1933, Archie Jackson’s stopped the city. His body was accom­panied on the train from Brisbane to Sydney by the Queensland and NSW sides.

I’m so saddened by the sudden death of Shane Warne. He brought such joy to the game and was the greatest spin bowler ever. pic.twitter.com/ZW76EbS6GB

— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) March 4, 2022

His coffin was carried by Bradman, Bill Ponsford, Victor Richardson, Stan McCabe and Bert Woodfull and thousands lined the streets as it made its way in solemn ceremony from his inner-west home in Drummoyne to the Field of Mars cemetery at North Ryde.

The Reverend Sam McKibbin said at the grave that the 23-year-old’s passing would be felt “all over the British Empire”.

Warne’s passing in Thailand at the age of 52 is not just news in the fields where cricket is played.

One of Shane Warne’s superpowers was his ability to own up to, and be forgiven for, his failings

The New York Times commissioned senior sports reporter Victor Mather, who used baseball comparisons to explain “the specific type of balls he threw” in the “sometimes sleepy sport” and the “physics-defying movement” behind the ball of the century.

Former Indian captain Virat Kohli, who attended Hughes’s ­funeral in Macksville, was one of multitudes who took to social media to express shock and sadness at Warne’s passing. “Life is so fickle, I cannot process the passing of this great of our sport and also a person I got to know off the field,” he said.

Mick Jagger, prime ministers and members of his team contemplated the enormous hole left where Warne had been.

Shane Warne’s iconic delivery stride. Picture: Jody D'Arcy

In Pakistan, where a historic Test match has paused and been rendered somewhat of an after-thought, his picture appears in ­papers accompanied by elegant Arabic script; a rose-strewn shrine has been built at the front of the press box by local scribes, who held a small ceremony in the morning.

Waqar Younis said “he will be remembered forever, he was a friend, a great host and a great helper”, recalling how Warne had given his time to help young spinner Yasir Shah.

Being larger than life, your small kindnesses, your domestic acts of decency, can be overshadowed. It is true such towering stature magnifies your mistakes, but another of Warne’s superpowers was his ability to own up to, and be forgiven for, his failings.

Author Anna Spargo-Ryan wrote of living near by the legend in Melbourne’s Brighton when he was being haunted by the press and paparazzi. Somehow her cat was run over by a news van in the chaos. Later, Warne, whom she’d never met, appeared at her door to say how sorry he was and admit he’d secretly been hosting and feeding the feline for months.

People lined up to tell stories of his ordinary kindnesses. Of chance encounters where he turned on the charisma, fixed them with piercing blue eyes and gave them a memory treasured ever since.

Warne said of his scandals that if he’d hurt anyone, it was his and his family’s concern, and they would deal with it.

He was flawed but he was comforted and made comfortable by the fact that he had put smiles on so many faces, and provided joy to cricket fans of all ­persuasion.

Smiles have been a rare commodity in the past few days.

Glenn McGrath, left, with Shane Warne in 2005