The cricketing world was brought to a standstill in absolute shock and dismay on Friday (March 4) evening as the barely believable news came to light that legendary Australian wristspinner Shane Warne is no more. Warne, 52, died of a suspected heart attack in Thailand while spending time on a holiday.
One of the greatest cricketers that the game of cricket has ever seen or will ever see, Warne’s shock and untimely passing was confirmed by his manager Michael Cohen, whose statement triggered an outpour of emotions amongst Warne’s fans and well-wishers.
“Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived. The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course,” Cohen’s statement read.
In a report published by Reuters, the Thailand police shared a few details of the case. Warne was staying in a private villa with three other friends, one of whom went to enquire about him when he did not turn up for dinner and found him unconscious. The police confirmed Warne could not be revived despite repeated CPRs on him and took his last breath.
“The friend did CPR on him and called an ambulance,”
“An emergency response unit then arrived and did another CPR for 10-20 minutes. Then an ambulance from the Thai International Hospital arrived and took him there. They did CPR for five minutes, and then he died.”
Bo Put police officer in Koh Samui in Thailand, Chatchawin Nakmusik, was quoted as saying by Reuters from a phone call.
While the policemen are still identifying the exact cause of the death, they’ve deemed it unsuspicious, confirmed Nakmusik.
The extremely saddening news on Warne comes less than 24 hours after Australia lost one of their other finest cricketers, Rod Marsh, the former wicketkeeper-batter, also due to a heart attack. Marsh went down with the heart-related illness a week earlier and despite medical attention, could not recover.
Warne was one of the first ones to express his disappointment over the passing of Marsh.
“Sad to hear the news that Rod Marsh has passed,”
he had tweeted.
“He was a legend of our great game & an inspiration to so many young boys & girls. Rod cared deeply about cricket & gave so much-especially to Australia & England players. Sending lots & lots of love to Ros & the family. RIP mate.”
Who would’ve thought, less than a day later, Warne would himself bid farewell to the world. As the shocking realisation kicks in, the cricketing fraternity mourns the demise of one of cricket’s most celebrated figures and icons, who excelled and almost singlehandedly revived the art of legspin in the 90s and early 2000s.
Making an indifferent debut against India in Sydney in 1992, Warne came into his own as he gained experience through regular game time and conquered almost every challenge presented to him. He was unplayable at times and went on to take a whopping 1,001 international wickets.
708 of those arrived in Tests, the format that Warne enjoyed the most because of the time he had up his sleeves to set up the batters and feast on their every possible weak-links. Warne’s Test career average stood at 25.41 as he bagged 37 five-wicket hauls to his name. There were 10 instances of him bagging a ten-fer as well.
An understated aspect of Warne’s Test bowling was his economy rate. Historically, wristspinners have found it tough to maintain leash on run-scoring in Tests but Warne had an economy rate of only 2.65 over 145 Test matches.
