Shane Warne Memorial: A fascinating life on and off the cricket field

Conveniently the best foot spin in history, without a doubt the best bowler in history and just ahead of Sir Donald Bradman as Australia's best cricketer, Shane Keith Warne died of a heart attack at the age of 52.Warne was an unlikely candidate for a sports hero or national symbol when he began his career as a shy and plump boy from the outskirts of Melbourne.

This unassuming character, however, sparked a revolution, turning the Australian cricket scene into a ticket sales party in the 1990s and early 1920s, and reviving on its own the sport's most difficult art of bowling.

Warne's main weapon was his accuracy. Instead of bowling one or two bad balls on each cross, he could bowl one or two per hour. He could do this while shredding the ball or creating no turn. A mountain of his wickets fell into a straight ball that was thrown to players worried about Gatting alone. But hypocrisy was always there and that was what defined it.

It was the feeling of watching someone who was a magician, a card genius, an entertainer alike. Warne floated the ball, hung it in the air, spun it like a celestial moon. He also knew his power. He chatted endlessly and asked the batsmen to consider what might happen next. He often stopped and made them wait to carry out the coup. He fired in flips - passes that went straight ahead - that saw players in two. He made them despair. He let them speak out of the game.