Thousands bid farewell to Shane Warne at state memorial service

Shane Warne was remembered as a "genius" at a state memorial service at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday attended by tens of thousands of spectators and legendary players, with music stars including Elton John performing by video link. The well-loved Australian cricketer died at a luxury resort in Thailand this month from a suspected heart attack aged 52, eliciting shock and grief from his millions of fans as well as prime ministers, rock stars and fellow players.

The larger-than-life "king of spin" was being honoured in a two-hour service in front of about 50,000 fans that was beamed live to cricket grounds across Australia and watched around the world. "Looking forward to a future without Shane is inconceivable," his father Keith said after batting great Donald Bradman's granddaughter Greta sang the national anthem to kick off proceedings. "But we take comfort in knowing that Shane packed more into his life of 52 years, five months and 19 days than most people would in two lifetimes."

A stand at the MCG was to be officially re-named after Warne, who in the eyes of many is second only to Bradman in Australia's long list of sporting greats. Some fans attending wore their cricket kit, while others donned Warne T-shirts.

Emotions ran high as they snapped pictures in front of his statue outside the MCG. One woman showed off her new thigh tattoo of Warne, which she had done last week.

Mark Taylor, who captained Warne for Australia, said the huge interest showed "how admired Shane Warne was". "The fact he had that rough diamond character about him made him what people like to see. People like to see something a bit different, and they got that with Warnie," Taylor told reporters. Fellow Australian captain Allan