Shane Warne obituary: A fascinating life on and off the cricket field

Comfortably history's best leg-spinner, arguably history's best bowler and surpassed only by Sir Donald Bradman as Australia's greatest cricketer, Shane Keith Warne has died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52.

Warne was an unlikely candidate for a sporting hero or national icon when he began his professional life as a shy and chubby boy from Melbourne's outer suburbs.

That unassuming character, though, started a revolution, turning a dour Australian cricket scene into box-office entertainment in the '90s and early '00s, and single-handedly reviving the sport's most difficult art of leg-spin bowling.

Scandal followed him as closely as adulation, as Warne took money from illegal bookmakers, was banned for using prohibited drugs and sailed through gossip-column indiscretions and social media clangers.

With a confidence that quickly flourished, Warne retained vast public fondness and was a prominent cricket commentator in Australia and the UK until his death.

Warne's Melbourne upbringing remained part of his identity, never tiring of potshots at Sydney or cheering on his St Kilda Australian Rules football team.

He briefly played in St Kilda's reserves but was at the Australian Academy of Sport for his cricket by the age of 19, played at first-class level by 21 and made his Test debut at 22.

At the time cricket captains thought leg-spin was too risky, with the extra spin to attack the bat meaning more mistakes and more runs.

Warne's first four innings in Tests returned one wicket for 335, and the end was near. Then he knocked over three Sri Lankans in 31 balls to win a thriller in Colombo and suddenly he was away.

A match-winning 7-2 beat the mighty West Indies, he hoovered up wickets in New Zealand, then the legend truly