The spin great breathed his last on March 4 and will be given a state funeral on March 30 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
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Spin great Shane Warne left behind an ever-lasting memory in the minds of the cricketing fraternity and beyond. He passed away on March 4 due to a suspected heart attack at the Thai resort island of Koh Samui. His management released the following statement after his untimely demise.
“Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived,” the statement said.
“The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course.”
However, autopsy results confirmed the death was due to natural causes with no signs of foul play. His body was taken to the mainland city of Surat Thani on Sunday via a ferry and transported to Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, on Monday night before being prepared to fly home to Melbourne.
His family and close ones arrived to the private charter flight to carry his body home where a crowd assembled at Essendon Airport, with the spin great’s mother, Brigette, waiting for her son’s casket holding a single white rose.
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Warne 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.
“It will be an opportunity for Victorians to pay tribute to his contribution to his sport, to our state and the country,” Victorian Premier Dan Andrews was quoted as saying by bbc.com.
Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) will host a live streaming of the event, according to Andrews. “We are working through that at the moment with (Venues NSW chairman) Tony Shepherd and the team at Cricket Australia,’ he was quoted as saying by dailymail.co.uk
‘We want to run those events alongside each other. Obviously, we will live stream the memorial service in the MCG – that’s incredibly important.’
“Shane Warne is the greatest cricketer I’ve seen of that generation and well loved by the people of NSW even though he was a Victorian
“I think it’s important that we provide the opportunity for people to come to the cricket ground and pay their respects to Shane and to his family and his friends.”
Warne was the second-highest wicket-taker in the longest format of the game only behind Sri Lanka great Muttiah Muralitharan.
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