The British pop star first met the late Shane Warne in 2014 and since then their friendship continued to grow.
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Australia great Shane Warne touched many lives on the cricket pitch and by meeting and making new friends off it. British pop star Ed Sheeran was one of those who became close to the late spin great after their first meet at a hotel in 2014. The British singer-songwriter, recalling his fond memories of Warne, called the spin wizard ‘a lovely person inside and out’.
“We met in 2014, when I was doing the Logies. He was staying at the hotel next to me, and do you remember he had that club at Crown?,” the pop star said during Wednesday night’s episode of The Project.
By ‘that club’, Sheeran was referring to Warne’s venue Club 23 in Melbourne, which closed in 2019, where the Australian invited the musical sensation to hang out with his friends.
“He took me and my friends there, and that was like the first time I’d hung out with him,” Ed smiled.
READ MORE: Shane Warne news: Spin great to be given state funeral at MCG
There is little or no doubt that Warne was a gem of a person. A testament to that can be found in Sheeran’s anecdote of the greatest leg-spinner inviting his friends for a net session at Lord’s and then bowling at his father at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
“Then – mate, he used to do some really amazing things. I’ve got some friends that are huge into cricket, and he just offered one day like, ‘Do you want me to take them to the nets at Lord’s [in London]?
“You guys know – the heart of that bloke was so big, and he’s just such a lovely person inside and out. There’s so many stories like that. He took me in the nets at the MCG. He was bowling against my dad, and my dad was doing the hits and everything,’ he laughed.
“Then I sort of whispered to him, ‘Give him one proper Shane Warne ball’ – man, they fly don’t they! They really fly.”
Warne left behind an ever-lasting memory in the minds of the cricketing fraternity and beyond. He will be given a state funeral after acceptance from his family at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MGC) on March 30. Fans will be allowed at the funeral while his friends and celebrity figures, including Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said that he wants to be involved.
However, the cricketing world might never see a leg-spinner like Warne!
