Dubai philanthropist mourns Shane Warne: 'It is difficult to lose a friend'

In the basement of a private museum choc-full of cricket memorabilia, Shyam Bhatia absent-mindedly flicks through the pages of a 170-year-old book on the sport.

He pauses, and his fingers run their way across the screen of his smartphone as he searches for a more recent memory instead. He types “Shane” into the chat search of WhatsApp, and browses his timeline.

In his received messages, there is one with two green tick emojis, and three thumbs-up ones. It was February 17, and it was the last time he heard from Shane Warne.

“I was planning to invite him out here to present the awards this year,” Bhatia says.

Every year since 1998 – bar the past two, Covid-interrupted ones – the Dubai-based businessman has celebrated the leading performers on the domestic cricket scene with prizes for merit.

A wall in the museum, which is housed in a specially-designed outhouse in the garden of his villa in Jumeirah, is devoted to memories of the awards.

It is a wall of fame, undoubtedly. Imran Khan, Sunil Gavaskar, Michael Holding, Andrew Flintoff and Ian Chappell are among those who have presented the prizes in the past.

Warne himself is widely celebrated elsewhere in the museum. There are six Warne books on the shelves of the library. The four that were penned by the man himself are all signed.

One specially commissioned painting of him and Muttiah Muralitharan has an annotation form the Australian great saying: “Keep spinning, Shyam. Lots of love, Shane Warne.”

Another says: “Thank you, Shyam. You’re a legend, and thank you for your support.”

Shane Warne memorabilia at Shayam Bhatia's cricket museum. Victor Besa / The National

Bhatia, the founder of Alam Steel, which is one of the oldest steelworks in the Arabian Gulf, has been adding