There will never be another Shane Warne – Nasser Hussain hails ‘genius’

Nasser Hussain credits Shane Warne with the revival of leg-spin and said he had brilliance, genius and fight.

Tributes have poured in from across the world for the former Australia leg-spinner after cricket lost one of its greatest ever figures at the age of 52.

Warne took 708 Test wickets, the second-highest ever, in 145 matches across an illustrious 15-year international career.

The charismatic star also claimed 293 wickets in one-day internationals and helped Australia win the World Cup in 1999.

“Leg spin was a dying art before Shane Warne burst onto the scene, we had never heard of a delivery called a flipper and then suddenly he used to set us up with it,” Hussain told Sky Sports.

“He used to bowl a delivery that was short and you’d think ‘Shane lost it today’ and the very next ball was the flipper and it would go straight through us.

“He was an outstanding cricketer.

“Some people are brilliant at the game, some people have genius and some people have fight and Shane Warne had everything in abundance.

“He was also a very, very smart cricketer as we’ve seen in the commentary box since he retired from the game.”

When asked about his legacy, the former England captain said: “He’s not going to be defined by the London Spirit or Big Bash or the Rajasthan Royals, he’s going to be defined as the greatest spin bowler that’s every played the game, he was box office.

“He was Shane Warne, that’s all I can say. You speak to cricketers, former cricketers, you look at the reaction on social media today, he was Shane Warne, there will never be another Shane Warne.”

“Just absolutely devastated today,” he wrote on Instagram. “Warnie was larger than life. I thought nothing could ever happen to him. He lived more in his life than most