Published: Mar 08, 2022, 02:50 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 08, 2022, 02:50 PM (IST)
New Delhi: Former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee said that most people in Australia including him is still struggling to come to terms with Shane Warne’s untimely demise due to a suspected heart attack while he was on a holiday with his friends in Thailand on Friday.
“I normally have my phone on the low ring. I was down with mum and dad staying on the South Coast and then went to the Southern Islands. The light from my phone just kept flashing in my room. I looked out at it and it was from Graeme Swann and he said I can’t believe the news on Warnie,” Lee said.
“That was 1 AM in the morning and I thought to myself, what has Warnie done? What’s he done now? Is there another controversy kind of a thing? I go on my phone and type Shane Warne news and it came that he has died from an expected heart attack. I was like, ‘Whaattt?’. My father summed up the next morning when he came downstairs and said, ‘Warnie can’t die. It’s Warnie.’ That’s the feeling here everyone in Australia has,” the former Australia fast bowler revealed.
Warne enjoyed the same kind of popularity as former India great Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Jordon or David Beckham in Australia, reckons Lee.
“The thing I’d say about Warnie is that, with Sachin Tendulkar over in India and the fame that he gets, with the Michael Jordans over in the US, with the David Beckhams, Warnie was that here in Australia. You couldn’t go anywhere without knowing who Shane Warne was. And even if you don’t watch cricket, pretty much everyone in Australia have heard of Shane Warne,” Lee added.
“But he would get harassed. He would be out having dinner before a Test match when we were commentating and we all sit together and he would get harassed for autographs and selfies. But one thing that a lot of people don’t know about him is that he always had time for people and he would always sign for kids and get the photos. He would cope with abuse walking down the street, but he would just take it in his stride,” he concluded.
