Shane Warne’s closest friends will join his grieving family in a private funeral ceremony to farewell the late cricket icon ahead of a state memorial expected to be attended by thousands.
The private farewell will reportedly be held on Sunday, March 20 with close cricket friends, media colleagues and former teammates expected to be in attendance.
Warne will then be honoured in a State Memorial Service to be held on Wednesday, March 30 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), providing the opportunity for Victorians to honour Warne and pay tribute to his contribution to his sport.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews took to Twitter to announce the public memorial telling Victorians “there’s nowhere in the world more appropriate to farewell Warnie than the ‘G.”
There’s nowhere in the world more appropriate to farewell Warnie than the ‘G.
Victorians will be able to pay tribute to Shane and his contribution our state, and his sport, at a memorial service at the MCG on the evening of March 30th.
Info and tickets will be available soon.
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) March 9, 2022
Warne died of a suspected heart attack, age 52, while holidaying on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand on March 4.
Warne’s management released a statement early Saturday, March 5 acknowledging the tragedy.
“Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived,” the statement said.
“The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course.”
Warne, widely considered one of the greatest bowlers in cricket history, played his first Test match in 1992 and took over 1,000 wickets in Tests and One-Day Internationals over the course of his career. Warne’s 708 Test wickets from 145 tests was the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket until 2007.
Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack recognised Shane’s incredible sporting achievements by naming him as one of its Five Cricketers of the Twentieth Century alongside fellow cricket icons Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir Vivian Richards. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2013.