Australia great Shane Warne remembered at moving service in Melbourne

Shane Warne’s life and lasting legacy was remembered by family, friends, former team-mates and rivals at a moving state memorial service in Melbourne.

Tens of thousands of spectators turned up to Warne’s beloved Melbourne Cricket Ground to pay tribute to the Australia great, who died aged 52 earlier this month from a suspected heart attack in Thailand.

Warne’s father Keith said the future without his son was “inconceivable” but that he had done more “than most people would in two lifetimes” while the former leg-spinner’s daughter Brooke described her father as a “shining star”.

The service started with the Australian national anthem sung by Greta Bradman – granddaughter of Sir Donald Bradman, named alongside Warne as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Century in 2000 – and concluded with the unveiling of the Shane Warne Stand at the MCG to replace the Great Southern Stand.

There were pre-recorded musical tributes from Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams and Coldplay’s Chris Martin while Warne’s larger-than-life character was celebrated as much as his on-field deeds.

He was branded a “genius” and “genuine” respectively by former Australia captains Allan Border and Mark Taylor, who added on the MCG stage: “(Warne) made slow bowling fashionable again. He made it cool.

“I think we who were lucky enough, and (Border) and I captained him, really appreciate it because it made us better captains and better leaders.”

Warne took 708 Test wickets, which was a world record when he brought a storied 15-year international career to an end in 2007 but has since been surpassed by Muttiah Muralitharan, while there were a further 293 one-day dismissals, with the Victorian instrumental in Australia’s 1999 World Cup win.

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