Clarke and Warne shared great camaraderie both on and off the field.
The sudden demise of Australian spin legend Shane Warne has left the cricketing world in deep shock, with condolence messages continuing to pour in from across the world.
The 52-year-old Australian great passed away on March 4 due to a suspected heart attack in Thailand.
One of the greatest leg-spinners of all time, Warne, is being paid tribute by the cricket fraternity across the world through social media, and now former Australian captain Michael Clarke has also shared his condolences.
Warne was Clarke’s senior player in the Australian cricket team during his early days, and both have played a lot of cricket together. They shared great camaraderie both on and off the field.
Paying tribute to Warne, Clarke wrote in a column for The Daily Telegraph: “Cricket has always been a game of numbers and one simple number sums up my relationship with Shane Warne – 23. It was not a done thing in cricket for a shirt number to be handed down. But all that changed when Warnie came up to me and told me he wanted me to take on his No. 23 that he wore in one-day cricket.”
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He added, “I am forever grateful for that and I will hang onto that honor for the rest of my life. For me, that simple act of handing me his number embodies the fact that he is the person who supported me more than anyone else. I don’t know why he was so open, kind and generous, and loving towards me from day one but he was.
There wasn’t a time I couldn’t pick up the phone. There wasn’t a time I couldn’t cry. There wasn’t a time when whatever it was I needed he wouldn’t drop everything to be my friend. That is what makes this so difficult.”
Comparing Australian basketball legend Michael Jordan with Warne, Clarke wrote: “Everyone is rightly talking about the legend that Warnie was. If he’s not the greatest ever Australian cricketer, then he is equal to Sir Donald Bradman. He is as his No. 23 said the Michael Jordan of cricket.”
The 40-year-old added, “But all that stuff is secondary to the friend he became to me and so many others around the game. Shane Keith Warne was loyal to the bone and would do anything for the people that he loved. We spoke two days before he passed away last week and he seemed as happy as ever.”
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He also revealed that he had planned to visit Warne and take his new car for a ride after his return from Thailand, but didn’t know, he would never return.
He said, “I was always willing to risk losing to win and that was always the way he played, and he wanted me to play the game with that aggressive approach and encouraged me to be involved in the game anywhere I could, rather than sit back.”
Clarke concluded, “The people I played with for Australia saw how much Warnie had my back as a teammate. And when he commented on my matches, even I used to think he was biased towards me! I’d get a duck and play a shit shot, and he’d say it was a good ball.”
(With PTI Inputs)