One of the finest captains in cricket history and good friend of Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting broke down in tears while paying an emotional and heartfelt tribute to the leg-spinner who passed away unexpectedly on March 4.
Warne, 52, was found unresponsive by his friends at the villa on the island of Koh Samui and they failed to revive him despite their frantic attempts. He was eventually pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Ponting had earlier taken to Twitter to shares his condolences on the demise of the champion cricketer, revealing it was Warne who gave him the nickname of ‘Punter’, due to his habit of placing bets on dog racing.
“Hard to put this into words. I first met him when I was 15 at the Academy. He gave me my nickname. We were teammates for more than a decade, riding all the highs and lows together. Through it all he was someone you could always count on, someone who loved his family...someone who would be there for you when you needed him and always put his mates first. The greatest bowler I ever played with or against. RIP King. My thoughts are with Keith, Bridgette, Jason, Brooke, Jackson and Summer,” Ponting had tweeted.
Speaking on Warne, Ponting admitted that he was shocked just like any other ardent fan of the game and added that it still been able to deal with the news.
“I was shocked I think like probably the rest of the world. I mean I've got the messages when I woke up this morning. I went to bed last night knowing that I had to take my daughters for netball and then was confronted with what didn't seem quite real at that time and even now probably doesn't really seem like it's real either so I've had a few hours now to digest it all and think about how a part of my life he was and reflect on a lot of those memories through the years,” he said.
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Ponting also hailed Warne for revolutionizing leg spin.
"Halfway through my career when we turned up to do coaching clinics and whatever else, every young kid in Australia wanted to be more than one of the bold leg spinners. He is going to down down as one of the all-time greats of the game if not one the greatest. I've never played with a more better and competitive bowler, someone who changed and revolutionised spin bowling back into," he added.
