Shane Warne passed away due to a suspected heart attack on Friday.
Shane Warne tragically passed away of a suspected heart attack while on vacation in Thailand at the age of 52 on Friday, March 4. During his illustrious international career, the former Australian leg-spinner was widely regarded as one of the game's greatest bowlers, taking 708 wickets in 145 matches. Following Warne's death, the cricket community expressed shock and grief, paying lavish tributes to the Australian legend.
Anil Kumble, a former India leg-spinner who was a contemporary of Warne and also had a good friendship with the Australian legend, also paid tribute to the late cricketer on Saturday. During a special segment on Star Sports during Day 2 of the India-Sri Lanka Test in Mohali, Kumble reflected on his time playing against Warne's Australia and revealed the team's "untold secret."
“His greatness magnifies because he played really well against India. He wanted to do really well against us because we were good players of spin. There was this series in 1998 where everybody was speaking about 'Sachin vs Warne'. Warne got the better of him in the first innings, and then Sachin got the better of him in the second,” Kumble said.
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“There was this secret, an untold secret about the Australian team, that they will not go after a cricketer if you are friends with Shane Warne. So, when you went out to bat, and if you were friends with Warne, you didn't get any banter from the Aussies. So, when I went to bat, Aussies didn't need to do any banter to unsettle me. That was Warnie, that was how he looked after his friends,” Kumble recalled as he paid tribute to the Aussie superstar.
Shane Warne was the first spinner to take 700 wickets in Test cricket, and he finished his career as the game's leading wicket-taker before being surpassed by Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, who finished with 800 wickets.