Shane Warne death: authorities reveal attempts to save life of cricket legend

The desperate attempts to save the life of cricket legend Shane Warne have been detailed by police officers and rescue teams on the Thai island of Koh Samui, as the sports world mourns and the 52-year-old leg-spinner’s final moments are pieced together by authorities.

Warne was on a week-long holiday with three friends at the Samujana Villas resort, the start of a three-month lay-off after covering the 2021-22 Ashes series for Fox Sports.

“They were going to go out for a drink at five o’clock,” explained Warne’s manager, James Erskine. “[They] knocked on his door at 5.15pm because Warnie was always on time and said ‘C’mon you’re going to be late’ and then realised something was wrong.”

Four days ago the champion leg-spinner had posted on Instagram his plan to drop weight and get back to his peak physical condition, telling his 1.3 million followers: “Operation shred has started (10 days in) & the goal by July is to get back to this shape from a few years ago ! Let’s go.”

Warne had retired to his room on Friday afternoon to watch coverage of the Australia-Pakistan test with plans to meet again that night for drinks and dinner. His final Instagram message was to wish “good night” to his followers from the villa with an image of the island and the infinity pool. When Warne didn’t arrive for dinner as scheduled, his friends returned to the room and found the 52-year-old unresponsive. Warne’s business manager, Andfrew Neophitou, was attempting CPR on the father-of-three when local medics arrived.

According to Thai local news, Wat Plai Leam Rescue team were first on the scene. “We got a call around 17:30 about an unconscious case,” said rescue team chief Phet Boonrak. “We got there in five minutes ... The person was