Shane Warne - The one king that can never be replaced
Written by Will Faulkner
e Shane Keith Warne.
An entertainer who played with and against the world’s biggest cricketers, yet always stood tallest.
The sudden, incomprehensible passing of ‘The King’ has shattered hearts across the globe, with tributes flowing from every corner of the world.
The kind of legacy Shane has left among the Australian population and beyond during his 52-year spell at the crease is one incomparable to any athlete of ours.
Unique in the truest sense of the word.
On a sporting front, Warne was strictly one of a kind.
The first bowler in Test cricket’s history to reach 700 wickets, the maiden milestone was reached in a way that only Shane Keith Warne could accomplish.
The scene?
Boxing Day, 2006, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in front of his Victorian home crowd.
Against our country’s most bitter cricketing rival England, and bowling to their vice-captain.
Like he had done time, and time, and time again at international level, Warnie spun his classic leg-break through the left-handed Andrew Strauss, and the rest is history.
One of the most historic moments in cricket's long history, Shane Warne's 700th - Photo credit: Getty Images
“Got him! There it is! Wicket number 700 – and they can’t catch him!”
The unforgettable words of his former captain and long-time friend Mark Taylor when calling Warne’s 700th Test wicket; a moment etched in the minds of millions of people worldwide.
As a five-year old at the time who had only just started to watch cricket, it was moments like that were what helped shape my childhood.
Warnie gave kids, teenagers, and hell, even full-grown adults the spark to try and become just a fraction of the player in the cricketing arena he was.
It was something that Australia hadn’t seen to such a scale since Bradman.
Away from the game, Shane never let others influence his unique personality.
Sex scandals, positive drug tests and match-fixing sagas all ended up as blurred lines when placed alongside his charismatic, captivating persona.
No matter the news headline, he was always looked upon favourably by the Australian public for his genuine nature and commitment to performing for his country.
Not long after heading into retirement, he turned his hand to commentary and media commitments.
Warne was heavily involved with Nine's WWOS, before switching to Fox Sports in his later years - Photo credit: N/A
Always a highly sought-after observer of the game, Warne had an uncanny ability to read the play and tactics of captains with their bowlers before they themselves could even follow through on them.
As an aspiring journalist and worker within the cricket media industry, Shane Keith Warne was the one person I wanted to someday work alongside.
Fascinating at the least of times, he was someone you could always rely on being frank.
Authenticity was always a strong point of his, and was what allowed him to live the way that he did in such a public setting.
While he may have done things differently if he had his time again, the leg-spinner’s mantra suggests he wouldn’t have changed a thing.
“You can’t afford to live your life with regrets”
A well-documented quote of Warne’s.
The mantra he undoubtedly lived by from start to finish with glowing success.
It was characteristics like this that made him so likeable.
Behind all the on-field feuds and off-field scandals, Shane was also the most loving of fathers.
Parent to Brooke, Jackson and Summer, it was always quite clear that nothing made him happier than the love he felt around his children.
Always grinning and always with time to stop for a smiling selfie, Warnie reminds us too that there is much more to sport than winning and personal success.
It’s about character too.
It will take a long, long time for Australia to pick up the pieces of a cricketing and cultural puzzle which will never fit the same way again.
Across the next few days, Australia will make sure to collectively raise a glass and a bottle of 708gin; Warne’s very own alcohol brand.
As Australians on the eastern seaboard begin to wake up to the tragic, tragic news overnight of his death, we will begin to mourn the death of sport’s finest calibre of royalty.
The one king across the world, that will never be replaced.