No one bigger than game, but Shane Warne is as close as it gets: Michael Clarke

Warne, former Australia captain Michael Clarke said while cricket will miss it's Michael Jordan, he is mourning the loss of a man who would drop everything to be there for him through thick and thin. Clarke and Warne shared great camaraderie both on and off the field. Clarke often said that the spin legend understood him much better than most and became his pillar of strength during difficult times in every aspect of his life. Warne breathed his last on Saturday after suffering a heart attack in Thailand. He was 52.

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Shane Warne, a spin wizard who made the world fall in love with his craft, died at the age of 52 due to a suspected heart attack in Thailand on Friday, leaving the world shell-shocked. "He did go on these ridiculous sorts of diets and he just finished one, where he basically only ate fluids for 14

"Cricket has always been a game of numbers and one simple number sums up my relationship with Shane Warne - 23," Clarke wrote in a column for 'the Daily Telegraph'. "...it was not a done thing in cricket for a shirt number to be handed down. But all that changed when Warnie came up to me and told me he wanted me to take on his No. 23 that he wore in one-day cricket. "...I am forever grateful for that and I will hang onto that honour for the rest of my life. For me, that simple act of handing me his number embodies the fact that he is the person who supported me more than anyone else," he recalled.

Shane Warne and Michael Clarke after the third Ashes Test at the WACA on December 18, 2006 in Perth. (Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)Clarke once again said that no one understood him and allowed