Illness And Death

Former England paceman Angus Fraser described Warne as "a magician" of a bowler, a leg-spinner who was "in complete control" of his art.

Speaking to Stats Perform, in the wake of Warne's death at the age of 52 on Friday, Fraser said the man who was so often the scourge of England did "untold good" for the sport.

Warne took 708 Test match wickets, a total beaten only by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, and his effervescence and skill level made him a player who transcended cricket.

"He did bring Hollywood to cricket, didn't he?," Fraser said.

"Sat next to Shane Warne, he always had a ball in his hand. He was just going through his ball, the different balls. So like the leg-spinner, the googly, the flipper.

"The control he had over a cricket ball, you just sat there thinking, this guy's a magician. I mean, he's just throwing the thing up, and it just lands straight in his hand while he's talking to you, and he was just in complete control of what he was doing, so the skill level of the man was just beyond belief, really.

"Every ball was an event, that was the thing as well. It was theatre. You stood there at the end of his run-up and then boom. You watched when he had the ball in his hand because you just thought anything is possible, anything could happen.

"Not just a great cricketer, one of the greatest cricketers in the world, he's one of the great sportsmen in the world. He's up there with Michael Jordan and people like that.

"That's the sort of level where he's at, so that's the impact he had on the game. The way he's gone about it, yes, he's made mistakes and, yes, sometimes he's been in the headlines for the wrong reasons. But he's just done untold good for the game of cricket."

Warne's death was a jolt to the global cricket community. The man who became a popular pundit after his playing career ended passed away while on holiday in Thailand, of a suspected heart attack.

Fraser was left stunned, saying: "These things don't happen to Shane Warne, do they? I mean, yes, we know he's got a lifestyle and an existence that is just unimaginable, dashing around the world, but it doesn't happen to Shane.

"I mean, he's sort of bulletproof, he's a force of nature. He's just a character that you can kick and knock down, but he always gets back up and comes back, and is there as bold as brass and as confident and as full of energy in life as he's ever been."

Warne's career was full of highs and some notable lows, including being stripped of the Australia vice-captaincy after a phone sex scandal, and being banned for failing a drugs test, having taken a banned diuretic. He became engaged to actress and model Liz Hurley, and although they later split, Warne's life was for many years spent in the glare of the media spotlight.

Fraser said: "Whether you've played against him or whether you've just followed him as a cricket supporter, his life has been led out there in the open, so I think it's inevitable that everybody feels it because you've seen him make his mistakes, you've seen these wonderful moments, you just know so much about the man. It's hard to believe that there's that much hidden, because it's just all been out there in the newspapers or on the televisions in front of us."

The former Victoria and Hampshire player, widely regarded as one of the game's all-time greats, was found unresponsive at his villa in Thailand.

Across a 15-year Test career that stretched from 1992 to 2007, Warne cemented himself as the architect of a leg-spin revival.

His haul of 708 wickets across 145 Test matches is the second-highest number taken by any bowler and just one of several records set across his career. Here, Stats Perform looks at some of his finest feats.

708 -Only one bowler – Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) – has ever taken more Test wickets than Warne, who amassed 708.

195 -Warne's haul of 195 Ashes victims means he holds the record for most Test wickets against England.

199 -The spinner had 199 Test innings at the crease as a batsman, hitting 3,154 runs overall at an average of 17.32.

14 -Alec Stewart was Warne's favourite opponent to bowl to in Tests, with the Englishman dismissed 14 times.

99 -Warne's highest score in Test cricket was 99 runs, while his best effort in one-day internationals was 55.

130 -After England, Warne took the most Test wickets against South Africa, with 130 in total.

96 -Warne's most successful year for bowling, numbers-wise, was in 2005 when he took 96 Test wickets, although an Ashes defeat took some shine off that haul. In ODIs, he took a career-high 62 wickets in 1999.

291 -He took 291 wickets for Australia across 193 ODI appearances.

319 -A hefty proportion of Warne's Test wickets came on home turf, with 319 coming his way while playing in Australia, including 15 five-wicket hauls.

129 - In 22 Tests in England, Warne took 129 wickets.

The sport has been jolted by the loss of Warne at the age of 52, who remained a major figure even though his playing days were long over.

Warne was a leg-spin maverick who had an exuberant character that helped to make him a natural broadcaster.

He thrived in his role as an expert analyst and was a popular presence in the role, bringing to bear the experience of his 145 Test matches and 194 ODIs.

Nicholas, a Hampshire mainstay for many years before turning to broadcasting, has become one of the best-known anchor presenters, and often worked in tandem with Warne.

Remembering Warne's influence, Nicholas told talkSPORT: "He turned a whole generation around to a new rock and roll type of cricket, he played to a level never been seen before.

"He always was an entertainer, he was never compromised by his art, and what he really valued was loving that so many people loved watching him play. He was an amazing guy with extraordinary energy.

"The only consolation I can give is he gave this life a good crack. I would say I would have trusted him with my life and would rate him as one of the great enthusiasts… of anything. He was up for anything."

Warne also played for Hampshire, some years after Nicholas retired, and captained the county side.

But it was as a spin pioneer with Australia that Warne shone brightest, his flair and cunning undoing the world's finest batsmen. He was repeatedly the scourge of English batsmen, helping Australia to seven Ashes series wins.

He retired from international cricket in 2007 after a 15-year career, seeing out his final years as a player in T20 competitions.

"This is a desperate blow," Nicholas said. "He was one of the most amazing people I've ever met and it's just terrible."

The loss of Warne, at the age of 52, sent shock through the cricket world, with Gatting forever closely associated with the man from Victoria.

Former England skipper Gatting was dismissed in sensational style by Warne during the opening Ashes Test at Old Trafford on June 4, 1993, when a seemingly innocuous delivery turned sharply and bowled the bamboozled home batsman.

The delivery veered to pitch outside the line of the right-handed Gatting's leg stump, only to dip, rip and zip beyond his defensive prod, beating the outside edge of the bat before going on to hit off stump.

Warne had already played 11 Tests, but this was his first in England, and the hosts only had an inkling of his talent. His first delivery in an Ashes Test went down in history.

"We understood he was a very talented sportsperson. He liked his surfing, he was a typical sort of Aussie larrikin, as they called them, who could spin the cricket ball," Gatting told BBC 5 Live.

"We didn't know much more about him than that, and in the match before they told him to just bowl his leg-breaks and he didn't bowl his flippers, and topples [top-spinners], and googlies, but when he got down the other end there, I was just trying to watch the ball.

"I knew it was a leg-break and I knew it was going to spin, you could hear it coming through the air from down the other end, and then just at the last yard or so, as a good leg-spinner does, it just drifted in, and it drifted just outside leg stump and just turned out of nowhere, a long, long way.

"I'm quite a wide chap and it got past me as well as everything else and just clipped the off bail, and I was just as dumbfounded as I am now to hear that he's died."

Gatting, now 64, was in his final years as an international batsman. Even with the passing of time, he remains astonished by the way Warne got him out that day.

"I can't believe it, and I couldn't believe it then, and it was just one of those that sort of probably helped him," Gatting said.

"He was a pretty confident bloke already, but I'm sure that gave him a huge amount of confidence and took him to the next level, and he kept going up levels after that."

Reflecting on Warne's death, after a suspected heart attack, Gatting said: "It's been just devastating really, and unbelievable. When you think he's 52, and he's been an absolute legend in the game, and I don't use that word lightly either. It's just unreal.

"We've lost a great cricketer and a great guy. I'm very, very happy to have called him a great friend."

Current England captain Joe Root said his squad, currently on tour in the West Indies, were "shocked and really sad" to hear news of Warne's death.

"My experiences of Shane were of someone who absolutely loves the game of cricket, was always a joy to be around, gave so much energy to the sport," Root said.

"Growing up as a kid he was a massive idol of mine, someone you wanted to emulate. The way he could win a game on his own, his skill level was incredible. But to have the opportunity to spend some time with him and get to know him a little bit, albeit not a lot, it's deeply saddening to hear the news this morning."

Root said watching Warne in the 2005 Ashes, where he shone with 40 wickets despite Australia losing the series 2-1, was "the sort of thing that makes you want to get into the game and play at the highest level".

"You could see his joy and enthusiasm when he played was still there when you got to speak to him," Root said. "He just wanted to see the game played at the peak of its powers. It's just really sad."