Shane Warne's persona was larger than life

May be because his bowling was actually art. Ask Mike Gatting, the 'solid' English batsman and former captain, whom he bowled with his first ball on English soil at Old Trafford in 1993, with what is now famously called, 'The Ball Of The Century' as it pitched outside leg-stump and took out the off bail.

Or Basit Ali, the poor man's Javed Miandad, who he kept waiting for several minutes before bowling the last ball of the day in Sydney in 1996, and probably theatrically discussing with Healy the evening's dinner plans, before eventually bowling and getting him bowled. The dismissal made even the erudite and normally politically correct Richie Benaud, exclaim with sarcastic innuendo, "You wouldn't believe it. He's done him between his legs".

Read AlsoShane Warne, flamboyant superstar, dies at 52 of suspected heart attack

Shane Warne, the larger than life leg-spinner who bamboozled batsmen, enthralled fans, and constantly provided fodder to tabloids, stunned the world one last time on Friday as he passed away, aged just 52.

Shane Keith Warne, the man who made leg-spin bowling sexy again in the 1990s after Pakistan's maverick Abdul Qadir had done the same in the 1970s and 80s, and illuminated the cricketing stage, courtesy his arresting duels with legendary batsmen Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, passed away after a heart-attack in Thailand on Friday. Barely 12 hours before the news broke at 7 pm India time, he had tweeted his condolences mourning the death of another Aussie great, wicketkeeper Rodney Marsh. Now, on the same platform, friends and adversaries were tweeting in shock about Warne's death.

One of Wisden's five cricketers of the 20th century alongside Vivian Richards, Don Bradman, Garfield Sobers and Jack