Fans of Shane Warne share their memories of the cricket great at his MCG memorial

The last time I saw Shane Warne was the second day of the day-night Ashes Test in Hobart, in early January.

It was a couple of overs before the end of the first session of play and he had made his way onto Bellerive Oval with fellow commentator and ex-England skipper Michael Vaughan with their production crew to host the interval segment for Fox Sports.

The sun was still high enough to bathe the section where Warne stood in the sunlight as he leant lazily against one of the pylons that the sightscreen moved along.

I was a patron at the cricket that day, seated just behind him in the stand named after Warne's teammate, David Boon, who famously took the catch to complete Warne's Test hat-trick against England in 1994.

Shane Warne's public memorial was emotional, over-the-top and heartfelt, just like the man himself.

A handful of self-assured kids motioned Warne for a selfie from over the rail of the stand, to which he happily obliged.

Other young fans, perhaps not as confident as the first, were obviously emboldened by what they were witnessing, and phones were prised from parents' hands as a great wave of children and teenagers descended to the fence.

He walked up and down that line for 10 minutes flashing a genuine smile. It was the same smile that he flashed in his playing days, the one that at the top of his run-up terrified batsmen around the world for 15 years. Now it sits in all the phones they were taken on as priceless memories.

This trait of Shane Warne — his humility, transparency and openness to all — has been articulated so much in the media since his passing 27 days ago,  but I wondered how did Warne captivate the everyday Australian?

It's two hours before Warne's memorial as a train pulls in to Caulfield station. As