Despite being a couple of weeks since the world heard the news, so many of us are still in shock. Warnie is gone. I seriously could not believe that the greatest leg spin bowler of all time had died a sudden and tragic death, just days after announcing that he was on a mission to get back in shape. 

No one thinks these people can die. We think they are immortal. We think that they will live forever and we won’t ever have to hear the news of their death. But the painful (and obvious) truth is that they are not immortal and that’s what makes their deaths so sad and shocking. 

The parallels between Warnie and the late Kobe Bryant are eerie. Both died such sad and completely shocking deaths. Both had an incredible impact on their sport and inspired an entire generation to want to be the next Shane Warne, or the next Kobe Bryant. Even those who’ve never watched basketball or cricket know these inspirational figures. In the school yard in primary school, all of my non-cricketer friends would say things like “I’m gonna bowl a Warnie here” or you’d hear the loud cries of “bowwwwwling Shaneeee” after every ball was bowled. The legacy that S.K Warne has left behind will be remembered forever.

I thought it was absolutely fitting that, on the day of his death, the Aussie women played in a World Cup game where one of the wickets from leg spinner Allanah King read on the scorecard:

Bowled King, Stumped Healy. 

The fact that some of Australia’s fiercest cricketing rivals have paid tribute to the great man encapsulates the impact he really had. Multiple tributes have been paid across multiple sports, and the whole world is still as shocked as I am. I seriously am still struggling to fathom what has happened. 

Warnie was not the perfect bloke but he cared so much about inspiring the next generation and he’s done a bloody good job. Leg spin is as prominent as ever and Warnie led that movement. When I used to bowl in the backyard, I would impersonate his action and all the grunts and groans he made when letting the ball go. I just wanted to be like Warnie. 

The last couple of weeks have really made me reflect on the last couple of months. In the media and in the public, Warnie was criticised for his commentary and comments throughout the entirety of the Ashes series. Before the series, he said that Mitch Starc should be dropped. Then when Starc took a wicket on the first ball of the series without an outswinging yorker on leg stump, Warnie claimed it didn’t swing! It swung about 3 foot Shane! 

That was the thing about him, he had an opinion and no one could change it. When he was on the field, his stubbornness was a good thing. When he was off the field, his stubbornness brought about criticism from far and wide. Despite all the criticism, we all loved Warnie and the shrine around his statue outside his home, the MCG, shows how much he meant to so many of us. 

Warnie was an Australian icon, legend and role model. He was the ‘King of Spin’ and with the reaction of his death being the way it has, sparking tributes from Sir Elton John and Ed Sheeran just to name a few, you’d think he was a God.

I’ll never get old of seeing that ball to Mike Gatting in ‘93, or “wicket number 700” at his home, the mighty MCG in the Ashes in 2006. However, as I watch them on endless replay on the TV, it feels weird knowing that he’s no longer here. 

I’m hoping to be at the G’ when he gets a send-off fit for a King, not just the ‘King of Spin’, but the ‘King of Australia’ 

RIP Warnie

Photography credit: Getty Images